Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: DownTown Baby
by Chem Mori
Summary: After the death of Joseph Joestar, Shizuka is suddenly thrusted into gang wars, deadly stand users, and a new drug that's giving people mysterious powers. Will Shizuka along with old and new allies be able to find Joseph's killer and stop the spread of the dangerous drug, or will a new dangerous foe get to it first? Cover art done by @aidnyan
1. Chapter 1, City of Possibility

Chapter 1, City of Possibility, enter Shizuka Joestar

New York City, the big apple. Although a fraction of the size of the state, one can't help but get lost in this concrete jungle of possibility. Even with this shining city, our story doesn't start off on a happy note; Joseph Joestar has passed away a week ago in the fall of 2018. The family mourns the loss, and plan on arriving to new york for the service. Some can make it, others can't, but everyone will have their lives shaken up, for better or for worse.

"HEY!"

The loud yell of an angry man woke up a young teenage girl sleeping in a fairly worn sleeping bag in an alley. She wasn't confused though, she stood up, packed her sleeping bag, and awaited for the man to approach her. Once a face was in her field of view, she reconized him as Jarrett Lows, a man who she made a deal to buy her alcohol. Instead of giving him the promised $50 however, she rewareded him with a swift kick to the groin, then darted a random direction with the booze.

"That was a shitty little stunt kid." Jarrett said while pulling out his pocket knife. "LIttle girls like you shouldn't be doing that to a big strong man like me"

"Hey hey, we don't need to get violent. Here, wanna share a drink?" The girl said, pulling out a bottle of beer from the box. Jarrett seemed to lower his guard, as if considering the offer. Before Jarrett got to enjoy a drink though, the girl threw the bottle at his head, leaving a cut. Before the man can come too though, the girl was already darting out of the alley.

"You stupid bitch, I'll kill you."

The childish threat barely phased the young girl, still running as fast as she could. Jarrett was fast behind however, and as he turned the corner, he noticed the young girl, standing with her hands in the air.

"Finally came to your senses, huh? Since you're so cooperative, I'll just leave a few slashes on that pretty face of yours to teach you a lesson." 

The girl smiled and put her hands back into her pockets. "Eh, not really, looking at you now, you woudn't even be able to hurt me if you wanted to."

Jarrett smiled and laughed and put his knife into his pocket. "Dumbass, I could take you out with just a punch." 

"So do it, stop wasting my time, I have somewhere to be." 

Jarrett was happy to fulfil her wish, and threw out a punch, so mighty it could take out a strong healthy man. This wouldn't matter however, as his fist suddenly stopped in mid-air, the sounds of snapping bones and his hand bursting with blood.

Jarrett fell back onto the ground, howling in pain. "What the fuck?" he yelled. 

"Um, are you ok?" the girl laughed. "Why would you go and punch a sign like that?" 

"What the fuck are you talking about, theres no-" Before Jarrett finished his sentance, he noticed something new, a stop sign with his blood caked along the post of it. Jarrett was sure the sign wasn't there before.

As soon as the man in pain stood back up, the girl threw a punch of her own. Suddenly, a feminine figure appeared behind her, dressed in long furry scarves and warmers, with a clear black mask on a helmet. The Spirits fist quickly flew into Jarretts face, burrying itself deep into his cheek, teeth cracking and flying out of his mouth.

Stand name: Achtung Baby

User: Shizuka Joestar

The man was out cold, and Shizuka shrugged and turned around. She quickly noticed a strange man watching her, probably someone who was freaked out that an adult man flew back in such a matter. However, the more she looked at the odd man, it was clear that he wasn't shocked, but studying her. The man was dressed in a grey tanktop and black jeans. He was fairly tone, but nothing too special from what Shizuka has seen before. His hair was almost shaved at the sides, with hair on the top sleaked back. The man had tattoos on his wrists, one of a dollar sign, and the other of a weird symbol Shizuka didn't reconize. Before she could say anything to the man, the man turned around and yelled to a guy a good 10 feet behind him.

"HEY JOSUKE, I THINK THIS IS HER!"

==to=be=continued===


	2. Chapter 2, The Joestar Reunion

"Well damn" Said the person following the yelling man. He was dressed in black jeans, a pair of dress shoes, a worn out white button up shirt with the tie loosened. "Suzy said you'd be hiding in an alley somewhere around here, but I didn't think it would be the first one we checked."

Almost instantly, Shizukas confusion turned into nostalgia, and ran and hugged the two men she knew as her step brother Josuke Higashikata, and his life long friend Okuyasu Nijimura.

"How's New York treating you guys?" Shizuka asked the two

"Well, we had a little incident in the bank." Josuke responded, "Okuyasu kind of went on a little temper tantrum."

"BECAUSE THEY TOOK MY 3000 YEN AND ONLY GAVE ME 30 DOLLARS." Okuyasu yelled.

"You should have saved more." Josuke said in a smartass tone. "Besides that, we had an alright time here."

"Look at the prices on american stores, they're all in the double digits, I thought I would be living like a king Josuke." Okuyasu said angerly

Shizuka listened to the two bicker for a bit. She was used to the duo butting heads about such a stupid matter. Neither of them have changed a bit since her last trip to japan with Joseph when she was only 11, Josuke still overdoes his hair, and Okuyasu still hasn't figured out the currency conversion rate.

The three walked over to the hotel Josuke and Okuyasu were staying at.

"Do you have a home Shizuka?" Josuke asked, "Suzy says you don't go home anymore, and you just sleep in alleys. If you need, I can get you a room here."

Shizuka turned down the offer. Not because she didn't want the room, she wouldn't like anything more, but she didn't want to burden Josuke to pay for another room just for her. Shizuka and the duo parted ways, and Shizuka continued on her way. She went on her normal route, using the money her mother gives her to buy a slice of pizza at a small vender she visits regularly, and enjoys the rest of her day, knowing her fathers service is coming fast.

The airports of New York are of course always crowded. With one of the most densily populated cities in the united states, it makes it difficult to make your way through. It has even made some people resort to driving long distances instead of flying.

"Why am I here?"

"Because Jolyne," A grizzled old man said to his daughter. "A member of our family passed away, and we are here to pay our respects."

"I barely even knew my great grandpa, I've only met him once."

"It doesn't matter, we're already here, so stop complaining." The old man rebutted.

The Old man had short graying black hair with a white hat and a very large, almost comical, coat. The Daughter was wearing a black top with cross stitching going all the way down the back, with a pair of jeans and sporting a pair of black boots. Her hair was long, had a single bun on the back of her head, and the rest curled and flew down randomly, all with blue and green highlights to finish it off.

...

"You could have at least gave me the money so I could fly by myself."

"If I did that, you would have used the money for concert tickets or use it to throw a party, wouldn't you?"

That question shut the old mans daughter up. They approached a man in front of a limo, holding a sign that said Jotaro Kujo, Jolyne Kujo, and Narciso Anasui. Jotaro looked back at the pink haired man. He was dressed fairly normal, sporting a pair of blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a nice shirt with a jacket. This is a farcry from how he used to dress when Jolyne first met the man. He was carrying all of the luggage from the flight.

"Why is he here?" Jotaro asked.

"You know exactly why he's here." Jolyne said in a hushed tone, "You said family, well I brought family."

"I know, I know, but you guys aren't married yet, I just didn't think he would have to be involved." Jotaro said.

"Doesn't matter, he's here, stop complaining." Jolyne said

"Gimme a break" Jotaro said under his breath.

It was a quiet trip in the limo to the Queen's Motel, they stepped out of the limo. The family reserved a full hall of the hotel, as they expect a lot of family and close family friends to be showing up. Jolyne, Jotaro, and Anasui made their way up to their rooms, and they relaxed for the rest of the day. They of course met and greeted eachother, as nobody was a stranger to eachother in the hall, but they were going to save the fun till after the service, and everyone must help prepare for the event. The service was in 2 days.

The sun rised on the day before the service, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. On this beautiful day, Shizuka was making her usual day routine, getting out of her sleeping bag and packing up, and walking over to the usual pizza vender. She passed by a cafe on the way to the vender, and saw Josuke and Okuyasu enjoying lunch. She gave them a quick wave, and continued. On her way there however, she noticed a woman following a good distance behind her. Everytime she looks over at the strange woman, she would often just smile and give a friendly nod or give a small friendly wave. Shizuka eventually forgot about the woman, and arrived to the vender. As she was ordering, the woman who was following her suddenly stood next to her and put her arm over Shizuka's shoulder.

"Hey hon," The mysterious woman said in a friendly tone, "I've been trying to catch up to you, but you wouldn't stop moving. Come on, lets go on a walk, we have a little bit to talk about."

Shizuka was understandably creeped out by the woman, and wanted to move away from her, however, there was a problem;

Shizuka's whole body was completely numb.

===To=Be=Continued===


	3. Chapter 3, Dirty Harry (Part 1)

Shizuka struggled all she could, but she couldn't get so much as a flinch from her own body. All she could really do was move her mouth. Her hands, legs, neck, chest, head, even her stand were all useless with whatever effect is going on with her body. She noticed something else, she was seemingly moving backwards, farther away from the vender she just bought pizza from. The mysterious woman went and paid for the pizza, ate her pizza, then began walking backwards right alongside with her.

"Alright, we got sooooo much to talk about hon." She said with the same innocent smile on her face. "I understand you're going to a funeral tomorrow, is that correct?"

Shizuka didn't answer, and kept her silence. However, from the nervous look on her face, the mysterious woman was able to get all the information she needed.

"Ah, so you ARE going to a funeral, no wrong there." She said, "But here's the thing, I have an issue with the person who's sitting dead inside that coffin. You see, I know who you are Shizuka."

When the woman said this, Shizuka's face ran white. What did she want with me, what does she want with her dad? All these things racing through her mind. Then, the woman asked another question.

"Now, what I want to now dear, is why would you murder your father?"

This question hit Shizuka hard. As the woman asked more and more questions, more and more rage boiled inside of Shizuka. She held her tongue, however.

"You can keep your silence all you want Shizuka, I have all day."

Then, Shizuka talked. "Whatever the hell you have going on with me, you better hope it keeps working, because the second I'm able to move my body, I will cave in your fucking skull."

The woman smiled, "Oh, don't worry about that dear," She said, "I've already gotten you fully in my grasp, and all you have to do to get out of it is to tell me why you killed Joseph."

The fact that the woman knew Joseph's name angered and confused Shizuka even more.

As the two moved back down the street, they passed the same window to the cafe Shizuka passed earlier. Josuke and Okuyasu were still enjoying their lunch, and Shizuka attempted to signal for help. However, all that happened was her arm raised up without her input, and started waving at the Two. Josuke seemed confused, but still gave back a wave and a friendly smile. Okuyasu saw this, and simply waved as well. The woman too gave a smile to the two, and waved.

What Shizuka couldn't figure out is why she was still facing the Pizza Vender, to the point where even the woman was walking backwards with her.

"Friends of yours?" The woman asked.

Shizuka once again held her tongue, with an obvious look of anger and hatred towards the woman.

"Wow, you're an angry little squirt, aren't you?" The woman chuckled. "Like I said hon, all you have to do is talk. Who are you working for, and why are they targeting Joseph."

"How do you know my name, or my dad's name?" Shizuka asked, trying to not yell in anger.

"Oh, I know your family very well Shizuka." the woman said, "Would you like to know my name?"

Shizuka said nothing, but looked the womans smiling face.

"My name is Rocko." The woman said in her usual friendly tone, "And you killed a good friend of mine."

Suddenly, Rocko fell back, she didn't watch her step and tripped over a small ledge on the sidewalk. She fell and landed on her knee, and she showed signs of pain. Immediately, Shizuka felt the numbness go away, and she quickly pulled out Achtung Baby and threw a punch at Rocko, but this would prove fruitless. As fast as lightning, another being was there, crouched on the ground next to Rocko, and caught the punch threw by Achtung Baby. This figure was tall and thin, wrapped head to toe in a cloth bandage, making it resemble a mummy. The only noticeable features besides this is its eyes, which were a deep red with a vertical line going through them. The other feature being small musical notes along the bandages, each about a foot from each other. The creature threw a punch faster than a blink at Shizuka's stomach, and her whole body felt numb again. She turned back around, and began going down the street again, still facing the Pizza Vender. Rocko got back up, and continued to trail right next to Shizuka, but this time facing towards her so she can better watch her step. The tall figure disappeared after it threw the punch.

"That was a close one, wasn't it?" Rocko said, "I will admit, I didn't know you were a stand user."

Shizuka was well aware of the existence of stands from Joseph. He told her about stands, and how there are many people in the world with such an ability, so seeing Rocko used a stand wasn't surprising for her.

"Well, you saw MY stand just now." She said, "And I got to see yours. Aw, we're getting closer by the second, aren't we?"

Shizuka's face went from that of anger to disappointment. She was stuck, and she couldn't see any way of getting out of it.

"What's it called?" Shizuka asked.

"I call it **_Dirty Harry_**." Rocko Replied.

"Is it the reason my body won't move?" Shizuka asked

"Oh, you're body is moving alright," said Rocko, "And in a way, you have complete control over yourself, but I don't want to reveal all my secrets."

It felt like several hours have passed, and Shizuka and Rocko were still walking down the street.

"I didn't kill my father." Shizuka said abruptly. "I don't know why you think I did it, but it wasn't me."

"Oh come on," Rocko Said, "Suzy told me how you were sleeping out in an alley. Its funny too, cause the day you apparently started to stay away from home," Rocko came closer to Shizuka's face, but instead of friendly, her face showed hate, and malice. "It was only days before Joseph died. You mean to tell me that you decide to leave home for no good reason, then suddenly one of my friends dies in YOUR home just a few days later?"

Suddenly, Shizuka started turning. She still couldn't move her body, but she was turning into the alley that she slept in the previous night. Her body started to act on its own, pulling out the sleeping bag from her backpack, and began laying down in the bag.

"Ah, so this is your little hideout, not as bad as I thought." Rocko said

Shizuka's face wasn't that of defeat, but shifted into a mischievous smile. She had remembered something she did earlier that morning, and it was about to help her.

Suddenly, a sharp pain emerged on Rocko's leg. When this happened, Shizuka sprang up, and her stand flew out and successfully planted a punch onto Rocko's face, sending her flying through the fence and into the street. While this happened, a barking could be heard. Shizuka picked up something from ground, help what seemed like nothing in her arms, and slowly, more and more of what appears to be a dog appeared.

"That's my stand Rocko" She yelled, Rocko already up on her feet ready for a fight.

"I Call it **_Achtung Baby_**"

===To=Be=Continued===


	4. Chapter 4, Dirty Harry (Part 2)

Shizuka finally had full control of her body, and she was finally able to get a good look at her enemy. Rocko had short, messy, deep red hair, all topped with a Beret. She sported black eyeliner and was wearing a black leather coat, a short skirt, black tights, and black shoes. Rocko's face was bruised from the mighty punch thrown by Shizuka's stand, and she isn't wearing a smile anymore.

"I'll give you one chance to come here and work with me on this Shizuka." Rocko said

"What if I refuse?" Shizuka replied. Shizuka realizes now that pain stops Dirty Harry's ability, and although Shizuka hasn't fully realized what that ability is, she at least has a way to counter it.

"Oh ho, trust me, you'll want to come nicely, and we can have our talk." said Rocko, she was visibly more serious than she has been to this point, and Shizuka realizes that if she doesn't comply, Rocko may intend to kill her. She began walking towards Rocko, slowly raising her hands in the air.

"That's good, we can do this peacefully, nobody has to get hurt." Rocko said. While she's putting back her friendly voice, she hasn't let her guard down.

Shizuka kept walking at a slow pace towards Rocko, keeping her hands in the air. Eventually, she was face to face with her.

"Okay." Shizuka said

Rocko smiled and started moving her hand towards Shizuka to activate Dirty Harry's ability again. However, this wasn't about to happen.

"I refuse" Shizuka said loudly. Suddenly, Achtung Baby appeared, and prepared to throw out a punch. Rocko saw this from a mile away, and pulled out Dirty Harry to block the punch. However, at the last second, she noticed a gap in Achtung Baby's fingers, and tried to dodge. While she narrowly dodged the punch, a large deep cut suddenly appeared on her shoulder. She wasn't injured, but she was distracted, and Achtung Baby was able to land another 2 punches on Rocko, one in the stomach, and another one on the face. Once again, Rocko was sent flying a few feet, and landed on her back.

"Shit, Shizuka isn't playing around," Rocko thought to herself, "She's beating me around like an empty can, I have to think of something."

Shizuka usually sleeps in an alley in a secluded part of town. Since there's nobody around, she feels comfortable leaving her personal belongings next to the place she usually sleeps, including her butterfly knife. While she was on the ground, and Rocko was being attacked by the invisible dog, Shizuka made her butterfly knife invisible, and held it high in the air while walking towards Rocko. When Achtung Baby appeared, Shizuka dropped the knife, and Achtung Baby grabbed it in mid air to attempt a fatal blow on Rocko. While it wasn't successful, it was at least enough to distract her.

There was a good 5 feet separating both Shizuka and Rocko, and while it was well within Dirty Harry's range, Rocko didn't know if Shizuka had anything else up her sleeve. Shizuka began walking towards Rocko, and all Rocko could do until she thought of a plan was to keep her distance, and try and stay out of Achtung Baby's range. This kept going until Rocko saw something that she could do.

Suddenly, she noticed something, there was a hole in the road where a manhole cover should be. Achtung Baby then threw out a punch. Rocko was aware of what she was planning, and ducked under the punch. Dirty Harry then punched near Achtung Baby's fist, and suddenly, it and Shizuka went flying back towards the hole in the road. Shizuka hit her head on the metal of the manhole, and was laying on the road next to the manhole, with the ability of Achtung Baby wearing off. Rocko approached Shizuka, and while Shizuka tried to throw a few punches, Dirty Harry was fast at blocking all attacks. Rocko picked Shizuka up by the neck, and Dirty Harry threw a punch to Shizuka's temple, sending her a few feet through the air, and once again under the ability of Dirty Harry.

Rocko was breathing heavily, holding her stomach.

"Well," Rocko said with little breath, "That was quite the sidetrack, but we're back. You're crafty, I'll give you that, but I'm done playing around. Tell me what I want, or I WILL kill you Shizuka."

"I told you, I didn't kill my dad Rocko." Shizuka pleaded.

"Don't give me that shit Shizuka, I have evidence, and you are doing nothing to discredit them. That little knife stunt was supposed to be a killing blow, so I know you're capable of ending someones life."

Shizuka said nothing, and Dirty Harry's ability continued until they were back in the alley, and Shizuka went back into her sleeping bag, facing deeper into the alley.

"Just tell me Shizuka, that's all you have to do." Rocko begged.

About an hour passed, and Shizuka said nothing, and Rocko was growing more and more impatient by the second.

Suddenly, Rocko heard a footstep near the entrance to the alley, and saw a man she vaguely recognized. She summoned Dirty Harry to throw a punch, but before her stand could even raise its arm to prepare for an attack, a pink and white fist implanted itself into Rocko's nose, and while Dirty Harry was still able to throw a punch, it was easily blocked by the large Figure decorated with Hearts and Armor.

Stand Name: Crazy Diamond

User: Josuke Higashikata

Free from the effect of Dirty Harry, Shizuka quickly sat up and saw Josuke. He stared at Rocko, waiting for her to get up.

"Hey Jackass," he said in an angered tone, "what the hell do you think you're doing to my step sister?"

"Can I get punched literally anywhere else besides my god damn face?" Rocko yelled while standing up.

Dirty Harry quickly appeared and grabbed Shizuka's knife from her pocket and plunged it deep into her stomach.

"NO!" Josuke yelled. But before he could do anything, Dirty Harry quickly turned around and landed several punches at Josuke, numbing his body. He began to walk out of the alley, and backwards to the street. Rocko followed closely, making sure Josuke keeps going.

"I inserted the knife in a specific spot into her body to where it wouldn't be fatal, but I'm going to make sure we get you as far away as possible." She said to Josuke.

Neither of them said anything to each other, and about an hour passed. They were a good distance from the alley where a stabbed Shizuka waited.

"Now that I'm under the effect of your stand, I'm certain of what it does." Josuke said, "It reverses a persons actions, am I correct?"

"Hm, good observation, you must have had that guess since you saw me and Shizuka at the window, didn't you?" Rocko asked.

"To be honest, I just thought you were a weird friend of Shizuka's. But the more I thought about it, I started to get suspicious sure. I came over to Shizuka's little alley to see if she was okay, but here I am, walking backwards down a street."

"Not that it matters, but you're correct about my stands ability." Said Rocko, "With one touch of Dirty Harry, a person is doomed to reverse every action they've done up to that point until I stop my ability. As you probably have seen, if I experience pain, the ability stops, but Dirty Harry will still remain."

"Thought so." Josuke said

Under the effect of Dirty Harry, Josuke bumps into a post without a sign, then suddenly, a sign comes from under a car and strikes Rocko in the back of the head. Free from the stand ability, Josuke picks up Rocko by the leg and throws her into the car from which the sign came from.

"So theres something." Josuke said with a smirk on his face. "If I used my own stand before I get put under the effect of your stand, I have a brief window where I'm able to use my own ability when you reverse me back to that point."

Rocko immediately ran to the other side of the car. She had no clue what Josuke's stand was capable of, and didn't want to risk finding out the hard way. Josuke was aware of this, and Crazy Diamond kicked the front of the car up into the air, and punched the bottom of it, sending it flying towards Rocko. Dirty Harry punched the car as well, activating its effect, and sent it back at Josuke, slamming into him. While this caused him a great deal of pain, his resolve didn't fade, and he stood as strong as ever on his feet.

"Your stand affects objects as well, good to know."

Josuke used Crazy Diamond to pick up the sign from the street, and strike a nearby window, sending glass towards Rocko. While Dirty Harry was able to block a majority of the shards, Josuke still had a shard of glass in his hand.

"Let me demonstrate what my stand is capable of." He said

Suddenly, the shards of glass that missed Rocko came flying back towards Josuke's hand, piercing Rocko's back. Even in this pain, just like Josuke, her resolve was untested. They began pacing around each other, both finding a good time to strike.

"So," Rocko began to speak, "Your stand restores objects to the way they were?"

Josuke nodded, "If anything is broken, warped, or injured, Crazy Diamond restores it to how it once was."

Besides that brief dialogue between the two, it was quiet. They kept pacing around each other until they were within both of their ranges, Then suddenly, both stands threw a fury of punches at each other. Crazy Diamond was able to block all of Dirty Harry's, but any counter attack he did, Dirty Harry was sure to block. However, Josuke had the advantage. When a stand is damaged, the damage done is translated to the user. Crazy Diamond is armored, so simple blocks don't do damage to Josuke. Dirty Harry on the other hand was covered in bandages, which did nothing on softening the blows of a punch. Over time, Rocko became bruised, and eventually was too slow to block a punch thrown by Crazy Diamond, sending her to the ground. Josuke simply raised his hand, and wagged his finger.

While on the ground, Rocko grabbed a rock, and threw it at Josuke. A weak attempt at an attack, but while Josuke avoided the rock, he didn't realize Dirty Harry throwing a punch, and it landed on Josuke's Stomach.

"OK, I've had enough." Rocko said, struggling not to fall over in pain. "I'm going to take care of you, and I'm going to walk back to Shizuka, she shouldn't have gone far. I needed one damn thing, and both of you had to make this so difficult, this would have been over hours ago if she would have just cooperated."

Dirty Harry picked up a rock, and began to aim it at Josuke's temple. It reeled its arm back, and began its swing. Suddenly, a distant engine could be heard, and before either of them were able to realize where the sound was coming from, Rocko suddenly flew almost 20 feet, and rolled another 5. Before she could even stand up all the way, the same engine could be heard. Josuke tried to find the source of the sound, but he couldn't see it anywhere. Again, Rocko was thrown through the air, landing with a hard thud on the ground. She was barely able to stand up, and looked around frantically.

"What the fuck?" she yelled

Josuke and Rocko both noticed something strange. A door opened in the middle of the air, and out stepped Shizuka, with a wound still in her torso, with Achtung Baby laying on the roof of the invisible car.

===to=be=continued===


	5. Chapter 5, Dirty Harry (Part 3)

Shizuka stepped out of the car, and started pacing towards Rocko. Rocko barely had enough strength to stand up, but she needed to fight back. If there was any chance for her to survive, she needed to activate Dirty Harry's ability on Shizuka. As soon as shizuka was in her range, Dirty Harry flew out, and with the little strength Rocko had, it was able to throw a punch. A weak punch, but luckily, it landed. However, something was wrong, Shizuka didn't even attempt to dodge the attack, and almost allowed it to hit her. A few seconds after Dirty Harry landed the punch, Achtung Baby grabbed Dirty Harry's arm, and slammed the stand onto the ground. Rocko slammed down to the ground, but undeterred, she attempted another punch. Again, she couldn't activate her ability.

"How". She said, "How are you not falling into Dirty Harry's ability?"

Shizuka undone Achtung Baby's ability, and all over her body was paper, cardboard, anything she could find on the street while she was making her way to Rocko.

Without a word, Achtung Baby picked up Rocko by the head, and threw her into the air. While Rocko was in the air, Achtung Baby threw a flurry of punches, too many to count, but where there was a place on Rocko to BE punched, Achtung Baby was sure to make a powerful blow. This all ended with one final punch, sending Rocko flying into a gutter, denting it, and a nearly lifeless Rocko falling face first onto the ground.

Rocko was bloodied, cut, injured, and bruised on the ground. Any normal person would surely be dead by this point, but Rocko didn't give up. With the very little strength she had left, she was still dragging herself with her arms towards Shizuka. Shizuka's stand prepared a final blow to Rocko's head, but it was interrupted.

"Shizuka!"

Shizuka turned her head to see Josuke looking at her, with a stern look on his face.

"She's had enough Shizuka, she's been defeated."

"Do you know what she said to me Josuke?" Shizuka replied, "She thinks I killed my own father. What if your mother died, and people accused you of it?"

"I'd be angry, I'd be beyond pissed." Josuke said, "But sometimes, we need to put aside our anger for the path of righteousness."

Shizuka hesitated, but then she picked up Rocko by the head. She didn't need to say anything before Rocko started to speak.

"W-why?" Rocko said, tears starting to run down her cheek. "Why did you take him away from me, he was one of my best friends, and he's gone."

"You listen to me, and listen hard." Shizuka replied, "I don't know who you are, or how you know my family, but I did NOT kill my father. I love my father more than any words I have could describe. I left home because home because I felt like I didn't belong with either of my parents."

There was a pause. Nobody said anything, and just like Rocko, Shizuka started to get emotional.

"And for a piece of shit like you to accuse me of doing such a thing, It pisses me off beyond words. How the hell do you think I feel finding out that my dad died while I wasn't home? Do you think I enjoy finding out that someone who raised me and took care of me is suddenly gone from my life?"

Once again, there was a pause. Rocko, even on the brink of death, was paying full attention to what Shizuka had to say.

"Now, do I make myself clear? Are you finally paying attention?"

Rocko didn't have enough in her to say any more words, so all she could do was nod in agreement. Shizuka dropped her, and began to walk away.

Rocko was losing vision, and everything was getting darker. Her hearing was getting muffled, and her whole body began to go numb. She couldn't move her limbs anymore, and she started to lose sight of her own thoughts.

"Is this it?" She thought to herself, "Am I going to die?"

Suddenly, the world brightened up again. The shine of the sun glistened in her eyes, and the sky was more blue than ever. She looked up, and saw Josuke standing above her. He held a hand out for her.

"Y-You fixed me? Why would you fix me after all I did?"

Josuke smiled "You gave me and Shizuka a lot of trouble, but there's never a reason for someone to die."

She stood up on her own. She started to walk away, but before got to far, she turned to Josuke

"Thank you."

Josuke, still smiling, nodded at Rocko

Without another word, Rocko walked away, and disappeared behind the corner of the street.

**Stand name: Dirty Harry**

**User: Rocko L. Manana**

Once Rocko was gone, Josuke went to work repairing all the damage to the car, windows, and everything else broken during the long and draining fight. He of course also fixed Shizuka's injuries. They started making their way up the road, reflecting on everything that just happened.

"The family is at the Queen's hotel Shizuka." Josuke said, "They all want to see you, would you like to go?"

Shizuka nodded. "Can we stop somewhere first? I have to run a quick errand."

"Lead the way." Josuke replied

The two walked to a very tall building, an apartment complex. Shizuka stared at the building for a while, before finally taking a breath and walking into the building. They entered an elevator, and rode it to the top floor until they were in a long hallway with several apartment doors on either side. She stopped at the last one to the right, and opened the door. She walked through the house until she walked into the living room of the home. The living room was large, had several pieces of furniture, and had a whole wall covered with windows overlooking the streets of New York. In one of the chairs in the living room sat a very elderly woman, who must have been at least 90. Without hesitation, the woman began speaking.

"Oh Shizuka," She said, "I'm so glad to see you home."

Shizuka didn't say anything, and after a brief moment, Shizuka burst into tears and ran to the old woman, jumping into her mothers arms.

"I'm sorry" Shizuka sobbed, "I'm sorry I wasn't around when dad died."

"Oh honey," the caring old lady replied, "Nobody's mad at you. You couldn't have possibly knew this was going to happen."

Shizuka's mother, Suzie Q, wiped the tears out of Shizuka's eyes.

"I'm so glad you came back dear, It does my heart good to see you safe."

Josuke watched the whole ordeal. He couldn't help but smile watching a mother and daughter reunite after such a long and lonely 2 weeks Shizuka spent away from her loving parents.

"Hey, Josuke." Shizuka said, "Can you give me a second to get ready, then we can go over to the Hotel to mee the family.

"Of course." Josuke replied

Shizuka left the front room and entered her room, shut the door, and walked over to her dresser and looked at the mirror. Of course, she catches brief glimpses of herself when she washes her hands or walks by a window, but it's been a long time since she really looked at her reflection. Seeing herself, it was almost like looking at a stranger, her short black hair, blue eyes, and the scarf Suzie made for her that is always around her neck, no matter what. She went through the clothes she left behind, and changed into a black pair of tights and a white tee shirt, and wore a dark blue parka over it. She looked through her dresser to find some pins given to her by Joseph, and put them on her parka. One said "JOJO", and the other was a small heart with a star in the center of it. She put them next to the collar of the Parka. To finish it off, she wrapped the long scarf back around her neck, and the long end of it falling down in front of her, with the word "JOESTAR" knitted in.

She met with Josuke and they both walked over to the Hotel. They walked into the lobby where the family was waiting, and it was certainly overwhelming. There were some that Shizuka recognized, but more that she didn't.

"Shizuka" said a deep and stern voice.

She looked in the direction of the voice, and saw a very tall man. His presence was intimidating, even with the pins of dolphins and fish decorating his coat.

"I don't know if you remember me. My name is Jotaro Kujo, Joseph was my grandfather." He said

Shizuka was fairly good at talking to new people, but with Jotaro's intimidating damenor, it was hard for her to think of something to say.

"Um, I like your dolphin pin." She said, trying to find anything to talk about.

"Yeah, I was very fond of it when I found it in a shop in mexico during one of my expeditions of the gulf."

Shizuka was nervous, she couldn't think of other topics of conversation, but she didn't want to just walk away from Jotaro, that could be seen as rude. A moment passed, and a woman walked up beside him, along with a tall man with distracting bright pink hair.

"Ah," Jotaro exclaimed, "Shizuka, this is my daughter, Jolyne. And thats... her fiance, Annasui."

"Hello." said Jolyne. Just like Shizuka, Jolyne didn't really seem to be the talking type.

"So... Annasui, I didn't expect to see you here." Jotaro said

Jolyne quickly gave Jotaro a dirty look

"Is... that a problem Mr. Kujo?" Said Annasui

Jolyne's angry expression only grew more intense.

"I suppose not, enjoy yourself." Jotaro said calmly.

The two walked off to meet with other members of the family. Once they were a good distance away, Jotaro Sighed.

"I don't know what she sees in that guy." Jotaro said, "Of anybody you could fall in love with, you fall in love with a convicted killer, and a creep on top of that."

Jotaro quickly noticed Shizuka's shocked and confused look on her face when he mentioned "convicted killer"

"Oh, its uh, its a long story. They met in prison."

This explanation did nothing in clearing things up for Shizuka

"Uh, why don't you go see the other members of the family, I'm sure they would like to see you." Jotaro said with a faint, yet genuine smile.

Jolyne talked to plenty of family. Of course, Josuke and Okuyasu were there, and plenty of friends of Joseph were there too, and were delighted to meet Shizuka. After the little get together, Shizuka left and began pacing the street. It was a cold night, and even with the little light being provided by the street lights, the mist in Shizuka's breath made it hard for her to see through the empty streets. She eventually made her way to the alley she's been sleeping in. She looked around for a second, and began gathering her stuff. She headed back to the apartment her parents raised her in, and threw all of her stuff from the alley into her room.

Shizuka was going to need a lot of rest tonight, for tomorrow was the day of Joseph's Funeral

===to=be=continued===


	6. Chapter 6, In Memory of Joseph Joestar

Shizuka was walking down the dark street of New York, and the street lights did nothing to penetrate the thick darkness that blankets the sidewalk. She couldn't hear or see anything, as the street was totally quiet and empty. As she was walking down the street, it only got darker and darker, to the point where the street lights weren't even visible.

"Hello?" Shizuka yelled.

Suddenly, she heard a scraping sound behind her. At first, it was very quiet, but gradually got louder.

"Who's there?" Shizuka yelled into the darkness, facing the scraping sound

Suddenly, the scrapping became frantic, and a very thin and tall creature started unnaturally running at it, like it just learned how to walk and is trying to run. The creature had a tall head, so tall that it slanted to the side, as if its own weight was too much for the creatures neck. It got closer and closer to Shizuka, and was soon merely inches away. It reached out to her with its long and sharp claws. But before it could touch her, Shizuka was in her bed, screaming in fear.

The elderly Suzie walked into her room a few moments after that, and checked inside the room.

"Shizuka, are you alright dear?" Suzie said with a concerned expression in her face.

Shizuka was breathing heavily, but responded to her mothers worries

"Its ok mom, just had a bad dream."

Suzie smiled and nodded, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. Shizuka didn't bother telling Suzie what was in her dream, because she already has countless times before. When Shizuka was little, she used to have occasional sleep paralysis. She couldn't move her body, or even realize she's awake, but all she could see was the same creature in her nightmare, looming over her bed. The creature had a long head, which would always tilt to its side, twitching violently. It eventually became so vivid, that she would wake up from a nightmare, and still see the creature in various places in her house, just standing there. She hasn't seen the creature in a long time, years in fact, until now.

This all became and afterthought to her after she checked the time however. It was 11:54 am, and the funeral was in an hour. She quickly jumped out of bed and got dressed into formal clothing, a black dress. She did her hair up so it wasn't so messy, and put on makeup, then rushed out of the house. She would usually walk, but she asked Suzie to borrow the car, which she agreed.

It was another cold day, the cold autumn wind blowing the orange and red leaves through the air. She arrived at the funeral home at 12:14 pm, and quickly joined the rest of the family, who were meeting each other at the lobby. Because she was early, only the close family were there. Everyone was dressed up very formally, even Jotaro, who Shizuka didn't recognize at first without his hat and large coat. When 1pm struck, everyone was in their seats. The organ was playing somber music, and everyone was quiet, waiting for the pastor to come up and speak.

The funeral went off without a hitch. Jotaro went up to talk about their adventures in Egypt, Josuke talking about their time looking for a serial killer in his home town. And Suzie Q talked about her whole life with him. Joseph seemed to live a long and fruitfull life, beating vampires, serial killers, and even helping in ending a century long family fued.

Memories came to Shizuka of Joseph telling her these stories, stories that she couldn't believe. She called out Joseph as being a liar, or growing senile, but Joseph swore it was the truth, so she believed him. But other memories started flooding her as well, moments of being with her father; the time he taught her how to ride a bike, when they would go and get lunch together, the time when Joseph acted goofy around one of Shizuka's bullies, and the bully became her friend. This all became too much for Shizuka, and she started to tear up. She tried to hold it together, but she couldn't stand it, and ran out of the building. Before the door could shut, someone's foot stopped the door.

Shizuka sat on the sidewalk, she couldn't handle all these emotions in her, and left her a crying mess.

"Its ok hon." Said a familiar voice

Someone sat on the sidewalk next to Shizuka. She looked over to see who it was, and to her shock, it was Rocko.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Shizuka said, clearly insulted that she would even show her face here.

"Same reason you are." Rocko replied, "Paying my respects."

There was a pause, Shizuka with her head in her knees, and Rocko sitting next to her.

"Look," Rocko said abruptly, "I'm sorry about all that shit that went down yesterday."

Shizuka took her head out of her knees and arms and looked over to Rocko

"I promise you that I didn't want things to escalate as much as they did. And I didn't lie about anything, Joseph really was a dear friend of mine."

Shizuka continued to look at Rocko

"The fight was whatever, you were defending yourself, and I was trying to escape." Shizuka replied, "But you accusing me of killing my own dad pushed it too far, and I will never forgive you for that."

Rocko spoke "I had my evidence, but at the end of our fight, I was sure you're not the person I'm looking for."

"Why are you so sure someone even killed him?" Shizuka asked, "He died peacefully in his sleep."

"Did he?" Rocko asked, "Because that's not what it looks like."

"I'm- I'm pretty sure he died peacefully."

Rocko paused for a moment, then looked Shizuka in the eyes.

"I got a chance to look at Joseph's autopsy. Nobody else has seen it but me. Joseph didn't have a heart attack Shizuka"

Rocko reached into her pockets, pulling out a photograph of Josephs autopsy. Shizuka was scared to look at it, but eventually she brought herself to look. It was Joseph's open body, with his heart chopped into 10 equal pieces. They were resting perfectly in order inside of Josephs open chest.

"Shizuka, Joseph was murdered."

Clearly shocked by the picture, Shizuka grabbed it out of Rocko's hand and ripped it up. She stood up and pulled out Achtung Baby. Both her and the stand were pointing at Rocko.

"You are going to tell me who the hell you are, and how you know my family, or I will rip you apart."

"Hon, that's why I came here." Rocko Replied, "But if I'm going to tell you everything, you need to make a deal with me."

Shizuka, with the same angry expression, put Achtung Baby back, and sat back down.

"What do you want." she asked

"I want you to join me in finding the killer." Rocko replied.

Shizuka looked at Rocko for a while, before finally nodding in agreement.

"Follow me." Rocko said

Rocko and Shizuka walked for what seemed like hours, until they finally began to approach an old, wore out building. Rocko approached a wall and pulled out her phone and began texting something. Suddenly, as soon as she sent the message, the cement on the wall melted away to reveal a door. Rocko opened the door, and walked down a long, long flight of stairs. It felt like a half hour has passed before Rocko and Shizuka made it to the bottom, and on the bottom was a room with the walls covered with maps and building plans, all with pins connected with red yarn littering the maps. In the room stood 3 other people; an old man with thinning hair wearing a turtle neck and a pair of glasses, a woman of Hispanic decent wearing a tie dye sweatshirt and a pair of gauges on her ears, and a tall muscular man wearing a leather jacket, blue jeans, and his hair greased back. Rocko introduced them as Harold Land, Maria M., and Rick Homme Respectfully.

"This is only a fraction of our group Shizuka, we're dedicated to finding Joseph's killer."

Shizuka looked around at the trio of odd looking people, but then Rocko grabbed her shoulders.

"We all came here to greet you, this is why I came to find you at the funeral." she said.

Shizuka looked at Rocko, puzzled by what's happening. "Who are you guys." Shizuka asked Rocko

"The Night Watch." Rocko replied.

===to=be=continued===


	7. Chapter 7, The Night Watch

"The...Night Watch?" Shizuka asked, trying to make sense of everything

Rocko smiled. "The Night Watch is an organization dedicated to protecting the freedom and safety of the common person. Our whole organization are stand users, everyone here has a stand, just like me and you."

Shizuka was having a hard time processing this, a whole army of stand users fighting for safety. From her fathers stories, it seemed like stand users were often selfish, greedy, murderous, it was hard for her to think of a large organization full of exceptions.

"When did this all start?" Shizuka asked, trying to piece it all together

"It was founded in 2012" said a deep familiar voice behind Shizuka and Rocko. "It was put together by Joseph."

Shizuka turned around to see Jotaro, still in his funeral clothes. "I had a hand in it, as well as the Speedwagon foundation, but Joseph put his blood and sweat into the Night Watch."

"What?" Shizuka yelled in confusion, "You knew about this the whole time?"

"He was the one who wanted me to question you." Rocko added

"Yes, I told you to question Shizuka, not use your ability or fight her." Said Jotaro

Rocko smiled and shrugged.

"But, why am I here then?" Shizuka asked

"I told you why Hon," Said Rocko, "We want you to join the Night Watch."

Shizuka looked around at everyone, the three odd members of the group, Rocko, Jotaro, everything was sticking together, and Shizuka didn't like it.

"I know you said that, but why me? I've already proven that I didn't kill my dad, what else do you all want from me?"

"We want YOU." Said Maria, "Don't you want to find out what happened to your father as well?"

"HE DIED" Shizuka screamed, sounding like a mix of anger and sadness. "That's all I WANT to know."

The room paused, and then Jotaro chimed in.

"You don't have to Shizuka, we simply wanted to make the offer. The door is over there." Jotaro said in a respectful manner.

Shizuka began pacing towards the exit and started walking back up the stairs. The hall going up to the entrance was dark, and ones imagination can put images over black emptiness. Shizuka saw her father, her mother, everyone she knew in her thoughts, projected into the dark nothing. But what she noticed the most was her father, giving her the same smile that he always gave her, one that would stay in her mind all her life. She continued up the stairs, but the more she saw her father, the more she felt slow, her stomach didn't feel right, her head didn't feel right, but most of all, her heart didn't feel right. Something was wrong, she didn't want to turn around, but felt like she must. Tears began to run down her face, and she made her way back down the stairs.

"What do you want me to do?" Shizuka said, her voice cracking in emotion.

"Nothing right now, we don't really have any leads." Said Rick, "Once we have something, we'll let you know right away."

Rocko dug through a small chest in the side of the room, and pulled out a stencil, one that resembled a lighthouse shining a cone of light at a single star. She turned her head to show the side of her neck, revealing that the stencil was for a tattoo.

"You want me to get a tattoo on my neck?" Shizuka asked

"This tattoo is like a mark, one that shows that you've accepted the responsibilties of the Night Watch." Rocko said

Everyone else in the room showed their tattooed neck, Harold, Maria, Rick, and Jotaro all had matching tattoos on their necks. Jotaro already had the star birthmark that every member of the family had, so just the lighthouse was tattooed onto his neck. Shizuka sat on a small chair presented by Rocko, and Rocko pulled out a tattoo needle. While her neck was getting tattooed, Shizuka recollected what was happening. She just joined the Night Watch, an organization of stand users founded by Joseph to protect the people of New York City. From what, she asked herself, other stand users, crime, what were these people fighting against?

About a half hour has passed, and Rocko had just finished that tattoo. It stung, and Shizuka couldn't help but hold her neck. For some reason, she felt stronger. Not physically, but she felt right, like something heavy just came off her shoulders. But something still felt strange. Something about the symbol of the night watch bugged her, its like she's seen it before. Before she could wonder about it anymore, Maria spoke.

"Hey, we got something." she said, "A mysterious disappearing near the Quebec Aquarium."

Rocko stood up as soon as Maria mentioned the disappearing, and looked over at Shizuka.

"Come on Shizuka, lets go check it out."

The pair left the room, and began to walk down the street. It would be a 2 hour walk to the Quebec aquarium. It was a cloudy day, one could think it was on the brink of snow. Shizuka was wearing her Parka and Scarf, while Rocko had her leather jacket, although with how much she was shivering, it seemed that the leather wasn't too effective. For a bit, Shizuka was quiet, and didn't really say much of anything for 20 minutes. Abruptly, however, she asked Rocko a question.

"What does the Night Watch fight?" Shizuka asked.

Rocko simply smiled, and after a moment, she spoke.

"Shizuka, would you like to hear a story?" she said

Shizuka simply nodded, and Rocko began to speak.

"There's a painting in Amsterdam called The Night Watch, which depicts several men and women all gathering together in the dark of night. What they are doing, one can't really say for sure. But many people say that the Night Watch gathered to fight for the way of life that one cannot simply have without sacrifice, Freedom. Freedom, peace, and safety, this is what the Night Watch in that painting represented, and that's what we fight for as well. At least, that's my own interpretation of the painting."

Rocko's eyes seemed to light up as she was telling this story, and it was obvious the night watch meant a lot to her.

"The legacy of those brave men and women live on forever in that darkening canvas, and when standing in the presence of it, you can almost feel the power of it. We strive to be the same way, our organization is full of so many different personalities and ideals. A lot of us aren't even good people, and some of us have even committed murder."

Rocko paused for a moment after saying the last part, as if something came to her mind that she had to push back out.

"But all of us are like different instruments. If we all play our own parts, we sound like unintelligible chaos. But if we all play our parts in unison with each other, and move with each other, we create one of the most powerful and moving songs anybody will ever hear."

Shizuka watched as Rocko bounced around, made gestures, it was obvious this was all something Rocko loved to talk about

"That's what we fight Shizuka, we fight people who want to take those things away, that way of life."

Shizuka smiled and nodded, feeling inspired by the purpose of the group she just joined. In no time, they arrived at the aquarium. After a moment of observing the windows, decorated with ads of other businesses, posters for deals, and the sight of people walking in and out of the shop, they walked in.

The aquarium doubled as a shop, with several tanks all around the walls. There must have been dozens if not almost a hundred tanks filled with all kinds of fish and other sea creatures. Rocko stopped in her tracks, and Shizuka kept walking. Shizuka fell in love with the sights she beheld, she had always had a fascination of sea life, and couldn't believe she hasn't been here before. However, she noticed Rocko staring down one of the halls of tanks, almost like she saw a ghost. She motioned Shizuka to come and look, and after looking at what Rocko was observing, neither of them could believe what they were looking at.

Inside one of the tanks at the very end of the hall was a vaguely humanoid figure made up of various parts of sea creatures, six tentacles fell off its back. Oddly enough, on top of the whole body sat the head of what looked like a mantis.

===To=Be=Continued===

Attention: There will be a short hiatus before the next chapter, thanks for understanding.


	8. Chapter 8, The Mollusk

Name: Shizuka Joestar

Stand: Achtung Baby

Stand Ability: Can turn things invisible. When Shizuka was an infant, she can only turn herself and her close surroundings invisible, but she has since then homed and improved the ability, making it a lot less limited.

Appearance: Messy black hair with blue eyes. Wears a large blue parka big enough to almost reach her knees, black tights, and black shoes. She wears two pins on her parka, one that says JOJO, and the other is a heart with a star in the middle. She also wears a large scarf, so long it falls longer than her parka. On the scarf reads JOESTAR in bold letters.

Has an affinity for snails and old horror movies

"What the hell?" Rocko said, "Is that some sort of mutant?"

The weird amalgamation of creatures looked at the two with curious eyes. The duo realize that this thing probably isn't hostile, since its letting kids walk up to its tank. However, Rocko notices something strange, the kids don't seem to even mention it, or notice the thing. They look at the fish swimming along side the creature, but never at it. The two looked around for answers, and saw what seemed to be the owner selling a fish to a child. The man looked like he was in his late 40's and he was a larger man. He was balding, and only had a little bit of hair on the sides of his head. He had the biggest jolly smile on his face, and Shizuka and Rocko weren't at all afraid to approach him.

"Hey, excuse me" Rocko said walking to the counter.

"Hello ladies, how may I help you two today" The man replied

"We were actually wondering about that weird... thing in the tank over there."

"We have a lot of strange things, I'm sure its just another fish you two may have never seen before" The man replied again.

Rocko noticed the same monstrosity in the tank right next to the counter. Once again, the creature didn't seem to make any hostile movements, it just watched the two girls, with the same look of curiosity.

"That thing." Rocko said, pointing at the creature.

The man looked back at the creature, then he looked to his left and right for a moment, then spoke.

"You guys can see Mollusk?" The man asked quietly, as if to not bring attention.

The two girls nodded, and the man spoke

"Oh my god," the man chuckled, "I think you guys may be the first people I've ever met that has seen the Mollusk. Everyone would always tell me its my imagination, and for a bit I believed it. But hey, at least I know its real, it must be if you two can see it too."

The two girls looked at each other, and Rocko looked back at the man and smiled. She grabbed the mans arm and drug him into the room behind the counter. Once they were in the room, Shizuka shut the door behind her. Once they were all in the room, the man broke from Rocko's grip and looked at the two.

"What the hell, what's you're problem?" He said, "You guys don't work here, you guys can't be back here."

"Just be quiet for a second and let me think about this." Rocko said. "Ok, so nobody has ever seen that thing besides you? If that's the case, then you have a stand dude."

The man looked at Rocko with a puzzled look on his face. "A... stand? I don't know what that is."

"A stand is a manifestation of your fighting spirit." Rocko said, "It's usually manifested naturally, but some people have had stands pulled out forcefully by other people."

As Rocko was saying this, she pulled out her own stand. Dirty Harry floated above her. Shizuka did the same with Achtung Baby.

"May we have your name?" Rocko said

"Daymen Ween." The man said

"May we see your stand Daymen?" Rocko said

Daymen paused for a moment, before talking. "I actually can't. From what I've seen my whole life, He only likes to be in water. I've never once seen him outside of water, unless he was jumping from one source of water from another."

Rocko nodded. "And how long have you had your stand?"

"Well," Daymen said, "I think as far back as I can remember, Mollusk has always been at my side. Whenever I went swimming at the pool, he'd be there. Anytime I go near the shore of the city, he would always be splashing around in the water. Even if I fill a cup with water, he'll somehow squeeze himself in. Actually, I think I may have a cup around here somewhere."

Daymen looked around, and found an empty glass. He went to the sink and filled it with water. Sure enough, once the cup was full, the same creature was firmly squished inside the glass, with its mantis head poking out of the surface of the cup, watching Daymen and the two girls.

Rocko and Daymen continued to talk about stands, and Shizuka just listened and stayed quiet. Suddenly, she noticed a weird sound. It was almost like a rumble, and she quickly turned to Rocko.

"Did you hear that Rocko?" Shizuka said, "That rumbling sound just now."

"It... could just be an earthquake?" Rocko said, shrugging her shoulders.

A few minutes later, Shizuka heard the sound again, only louder. Rocko seemed to notice it too, as she stopped responding to Daymen's questions.

"That... was weird" Rocko said, "I definitely heard it that time."

The two sat and waited for a moment to see if they could hear the rumbling again. Sure enough, they heard it once more, but this time, it sounded a lot more pronounced, and one could hear the time between each rumble. Along with this, it was much louder.

"Oh shit." Rocko said

"What's wrong?" Shizuka said

"EVERYONE GET DOWN" Rocko yelled after opening the door to the patrons shopping in the store.

Suddenly, countless bullets flew in through the windows; shattering tanks, killing a large amount of the sea life and leaking water all over the floor, and unfortunately, killing a large amount of the people in the store. Rocko ran back into the room and slammed the door shut. Shizuka was holding her mouth with tears running down her eyes.

"What the fuck is going on?" Shizuka cried out.

Rocko hushed Shizuka quiet, and listened. Someone was walking through the store. There was a loud thumb for each step. Shizuka used Achtung Baby to make a tiny invisible hole on the wall to see. There was a man walking through the store, Glass and fish crunching below his boots. He was walking towards a woman crying over her wounded child. Without a hint of humanity, the man pointed a very long revolver at the woman's head. He looked away and cringed his face, and pulled the trigger. As the woman fell to the ground, a visible look of sadness was on the man's face. Suddenly, he noticed the hole Shizuka made. Shizuka fell back and made the hole disappear.

"Shit, shit, shit." Rocko whispered to herself over and over again. "This is bad."

"What's going on Rocko?" Shizuka said, tears still running down her eyes.

"Ok, describe to me what the man looked like." Rocko said

Shizuka did just that. The man was wearing boots with blue jeans and a black belt. He was wearing a red jacket over a long sleeved shirt. His belt had a holster for his gun. The man looked at least 30, with his hair cut up in grids.

"Anything specific?" Rocko said

"Well, he had a symbol on his jacket, on his back." Shizuka replied

Rocko's eyes widened. "What kind of symbol?"

Shizuka described the symbol on the mans jacket. A Droplet falling onto a dead bird.

===To=Be=Continued===


	9. Chapter 9, Highwayman (Part 1)

Name: Rocko L. Manana

Stand: Dirty Harry

Appearance: Red Nicely cut hair under a beret. Wears a black leather jacket over a white t shirt. Black skirt with black tights and black shoes.

Stand Ability: If Dirty Harry touches a person or an object, it will reverse their actions up to that point.

Has an affinity for art and hip hop.

"Shit!" Rocko said

"What, what's wrong?" Shizuka replied.

After a short pause, Rocko spoke. "Listen Shizuka, we don't have time to talk about this right now, but I will tell you this. This guy is a member of the Larks in Aspic. They're a gang we've been watching for a while now, but not once have they ever done something like this."

Daymen suddenly stood up and began to walk to the door. "This is bullshit, he thinks he can just come in and ruin my shop, kill innocent people, and kill all these living creatures?" he opened the door, and just as he opened it a crack, the man in the store saw him, and aimed his gun at Daymen. He wasn't the only one to aim their gun however, there was a figure behind him. The figure was large and burly, and wore black cowboy boots with black pants. It had a black belt decorated with a holster and a sheath for a cutlass. It had a thick black jacket with a hood covering its face, which had a respirator over its mouth with a single large glowing eye. Just as the figure was about to shoot, Dirty Harry grabbed Daymen by the arm and flung him back into the room, and slammed the door. They both fell on the ground, and a bullet flew through the door and hit the concrete wall on the other side of the room the three were in.

"Are you fucking crazy?" Rocko said to Daymen, "We don't know what this guy is capable of, we can't just walk up to him like that dumbass."

"Do you think he might be a stand user?" Shizuka asked, barely able to keep her eyes open from panicking.

"He's a member of the Larks in Aspic, they're all stand users, so I guarantee he does." Rocko replied

"I think I saw something show up behind him," Daymen said, describing the appearance of the black figure that appeared behind the man.

Suddenly, while they were talking, Shizuka noticed something about the bullet hole made on the concrete wall in the room. Something black was oozing out of it, almost like taking a can of silly putty and squeezing it. The black ooze got bigger and bigger, until it started growing limbs and a head. Shizuka was horrified to realize that it was the same figure Daymen was describing.

"GUYS" Shizuka yelled

Before they reacted, Shizuka ran over to them and used Achtung Baby. The invisible trio sat on the floor on the farthest side of the room, away from the creature.

"Is that his stand?" Rocko whispered very quietly.

"Rocko, what do we do?" Shizuka said

"I don't know, I don't know if there's anything TO do." Rocko replied

Daymen looked around for a second, then spoke. "All the tanks are shattered, and there's water everywhere on the floor. If I can get Mollusk out there, he can help us."

The two girls couldn't see how the Mollusk would help them, but they had no other options at that time. The hooded figure walked around the room, and luckily it seemed that it couldn't find the trio. But suddenly, Rocko snapped her finger. The figure immediately turned around and fired a round at Rocko. Luckily, Rocko was prepared, and Dirty Harry flew out and touched the bullet milliseconds before hitting Rocko between the eyes. With one touch, the bullet went flying back into the figure's hand and knocking the gun out of it. Shizuka ran for the gun, and once she grabbed it, she fired 2 rounds into the figure. It fell dead to the ground, and all signs of life were now null.

"Did... did that kill the user?" Rocko asked.

Shizuka used Achtung Baby once again to make a small hole in the door, but all she could see was another eye peering back at her. The door suddenly flew open, and in stepped the man who was walking through the store. Luckily, the trio were still invisible, so the man didn't realize that they were only a few feet away from him. He looked over the dead body of his stand.

"Huh, killed with its own gun. It isn't a first, but it still surprises me."

Suddenly as the man was saying this, two arms emerged out of each bullet whole of the dead figure, and two more copies of it stepped up from them.

"I know you're in here Rocko, trying to kill Highwayman with its own gun is a dumb idea, as you can clearly see" The man said, "I was told you have an ally that can turn you invisible, so I'm certain you're in this room somewhere."

As the man was saying this, he shut the door behind him, and the two Highwaymen wondered around looking for the Trio.

They moved slowly around the man and his stand trying not to make any noise while invisible. The man seemed to be sure that the three were definitely in this room. Suddenly, Shizuka had an idea. Shizuka made the bottom of the door invisible, and put Achtung Baby on the other side. She knocked on the door to attempt to get them to think that they were on the other side. However, this worked too well, as the two highwaymen fired the second they heard the sound, and nailed Achtung Baby with both shots. Shizuka had a bullet wound in her shoulder and foot, and yelled out in pain.

Rocko ran for the door while invisible, and kicked the door open. The highwaymen tried to shoot her, but Dirty Harry was able to send the bullets back with its ability, flinging the guns out of those Highwaymen as well. Shizuka and Daymen followed, but the man was able to get a shot at all three of their legs, sending them falling down to the floor. The indent in the water on the ground was giving away their position, and the man shot the floor next to him 4 times, creating 4 additional Highwaymen.

"You guys might as well show yourselves, you're completely surrounded. We can see your footsteps in the water on the floor.

Shizuka undid her ability, and the three were visible again. They raised their hands, and the Highwaymen pointed their guns at the three, but they didn't fire.

"Finally, I got the right one." The man said, "I didn't enjoy it, and it will scar me for the rest of my life, but I just obliterated 3 other stores just like I did with this one looking for you Rocko."

The man walked around the 3, looking for anything that they might be planning. The man was very careful to find any tricks that Shizuka, Rocko, and Daymen might have up their sleeves. Finally, after a full minute of walking around them, the man stood in front of them and introduced himself as W. K. Cash.

"What do you want with me?" Rocko asked with an angry tone

"I want you to come with me, me and a few others have a lot of questions for you." Cash said

"I don't think that's going to happen." Daymen said.

"Excuse me?" Cash said, walking up to Daymen and putting a gun to his head. "You're on my terms asshole, don't make me hollow out your skull."

"Big words." Daymen said, "You say we're on your terms, but what you fail to realize is that you're on the Mollusk's field.

Suddenly, the 2 girls noticed the Mollusk, flat in the water underneath one of the Highwaymen. It opened its mouth, showing rows of razor sharp teeth. Suddenly, the Mollusk shot out of the water, it was massive, grabbing one of the highwaymen with its teeth and falling back into the water. The highwaymen shot several rounds in that direction, but none of them seemed to hit. Then, a large school of tiny Mollusks shot out of the water one by one and bit chunks off of another highwayman until there was no trace of it left. The other Highwaymen continued to fire, until a giant crab claw came out of the water and grabbed another Highwayman's torso, cutting it in half with its mighty claw. Finally, several octopus limbs emerged and wrapped around the final Highwayman, dragging it under the water. With all the Highwaymen gone, Cash looked at Daymen who was smiling. But then Cash began to smile too.

"You dumbass, this is why you don't attack someone when you don't fully realize their ability" he said

Suddenly, from all of the bullet holes from the rounds shot during Daymens attack, countless Highwaymen emerged from the ground. There must have at least been 20 of them. They all pointed their guns at Daymen."

"Goodbye jackass" Cash said

All of the Highwaymen began to fire, but the Mollusk jumped from the water and took all the rounds. Chunks of Mollusk fell all over, and eventually all that remained was part of its head. So many pieces of the Mollusk fell off that there was a small island on the water on the floor of the aquarium. However, even with all this, Daymen was still smiling.

"Do any of you know what an axolotl is?" He said. Cash was shocked, and ceased fire. "They're truly interesting creatures, they can regrow any limbs you cut off, even their heads." Daymen finished

Suddenly, the Mollusk began to regrow, and swallowed Daymen whole, and dove back into the water. He appeared on the other side of the room, wearing the Mollusk like a suit. The Highwaymen started shooting again, but the bullets were just bouncing off. It was soon visible that Mollusk had turtle shells decorating its whole body.

"Rocko, Shizuka, stand on the pile of Mollusk parts." Daymen yelled.

Once they did, Daymen smiled and flew his hand into the air. The mollusk's arm was like a whip, and flew onto the ground. When the Mollusk's palm reached the floor, electricity ran through the water on the ground, shocking all of the Highwaymen and Cash. The Highwaymen all fell dead, but Cash was still standing.

===To=Be=Continued===


	10. Chapter 10, Highwayman (Part 2)

Name: Josuke Higashikata

Stand: Crazy Diamond

Appearance: Wears a white button up shirt with a tie untied around his collar. Wears black jeans with fairly nice formal shoes. Has a Pompadour, which he is very proud of. Has long sideburns.

Stand Ability: Crazy Diamond is able to restore anything to its previous state, whether it was broken, warped, or injured

Has an affinity for comic books and 90's pop

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Shizuka and Rocko were surprised by the power of the Mollusk. Neither of them expected the stand to be so strong, but it just beaten dozens of Cash's Highwaymen. Shizuka and Rocko didn't dare to move, because even though the Mollusk seemed to have everything under control, they had no way of countering Highwayman's impeccable aim. Mollusk was able to be protect it and Daymen from the barrage of fire shot by the 20 or so Highwaymen. However, even with them taken out, Cash was still standing, and he was still smiling.

"I just told you buddy," Cash said, "Attacking someone when you don't truly understand their ability is a death sentence."

After saying this, Cash pointed up. After the bullets hit the Mollusk's hard shell, they ricocheted off and landed into the walls, floor, and ceiling. From all these bullet holes, there was already the torso of a highwayman hanging from the ceiling or wall. There was a lot more of them this time, there must have been at least 40 or 50 of them. It was hard to see the walls and ceiling over the sheer amount of Highwaymen. They aimed their fire, but not at Daymen, but at Shizuka and Rocko.

"NO" Daymen yelled.

Daymen was able to quickly swim over there with the help of the Mollusk and stop most of the bullets, but some of the bullets landed on Rocko and Shizuka. Thankfully, it wasn't anything vital, and the two girls were able to keep their ground.

"You bastard." Daymen yelled

Cash just started to laugh. "You bounced the bullets off of your hard shell again?" Cash said

Daymen ricocheted more bullets off the Mollusk's hard shell, and more bullets flew into the ceiling and the walls. There were a LOT more Highwaymen now, at least 100. The ceiling and walls were completely covered, and it probably wouldn't be possible to create more Highwaymen without taking a few of them out.

"You can't beat my Highwaymen with the tactics you're using." Cash said, "Highwayman is invincible. The only way to beat Highwayman is to kill me, but they won't let you do that."

Tempted by this challenge, the Mollusk threw out its arm, which stretched and opened a snake like mouth on the end. Before it could get anywhere near Cash however, it was quickly gunned into pulp by the Highwaymen. What's worse is the Mollusk's tough shell was beginning to crack. He couldn't block anymore shots without the risk of the shells breaking and he'll get gunned down like a rabbit. But even if he could block them, all it would do is ricochet and create more Highwaymen. Daymen was in a tough spot, but then he heard something. The air rumbled and a loud boom could be heard outside. He looked out the shattered windows, and realized it was raining. Mollusk quickly grabbed Rocko and Shizuka and dove back under the water, all while the Highwaymen were trying to land a good shot. The trio reappeared outside and the Mollusk set the two girls on the wet sidewalk.

"Ok, you two get out of here." Daymen said, "This is your only chance to run."

Shizuka and Rocko stood their ground

"We aren't going anywhere." Rocko said, "Until we beat the shit out of this guy."

"At least, make yourselves invisible again?" Daymen replied

Shizuka turned herself and Rocko invisible and waited in the rain. Daymen went back underwater and went back into the store. Almost as soon as he went back in, the Highwaymen took aim and fired several hundred rounds at the Mollusk, but since Daymen wasn't protecting the two girls anymore, he can go all out. He shot bolts of water at each Highwaymen, strong enough to cut through steel. As each Highwaymen was taken out, Cash tried all he could to make more with his own revolver, but nothing he could do was keeping up with the Mollusk's pace. Daymen also made sure that no more bullets ricocheted off of the Mollusk's hard shell, and only stayed in the water. Shizuka and Rocko stayed outside watching in.

"We have to help him somehow." Shizuka said

"There's nothing we could do, even Mollusk is barely making a dent." Rocko replied.

"Still, I'm going to think of something." Shizuka said

Eventually, Daymen was able to take out all of the Highwaymen on the ceiling and walls, and before Cash could create more, the Mollusk lunged at Cash and delivered a mighty punch. It sent Cash flying out into the rain.

"Alright," Daymen said, barely losing a breath, "It's raining. My Mollusk is at its strongest when its surrounded by water, so you might as well give up."

As soon as Daymen finished his sentence, Cash took aim into the sky and fired into the clouds.

"You just don't listen. Highwayman is able to create copies of itself when it's bullet hits an inanimate object. It doesn't matter what kind of object."

Daymen heard what sounded like thunder, but when he looked up, he saw countless black dots in the sky falling with the rain drops. When Cash's bullet hit a rain drop, it created the arm of a Highwayman in the droplet, and that Highwayman fired into another drop, and those two fired again, and so on. Before anyone knew it, there were thousands of Highwaymen in the sky. Of course, once the droplet hits the ground, the arm would be crushed and killed, but this didn't matter. Cash stood up and snapped his finger, and a storm of bullets came falling down from the sky. Mollusk's hard shell was doing the best it could, but eventually it cracked more, several bullets started to pass through the Mollusk and into Daymen. Once the storm of bullets cleared and all of the arms of Highwaymen fell to their deaths, all that was left was the bloody hole filled body of Daymen Ween

===To=Be=Continued===


	11. Chapter 11, Highwayman (Part 3)

Name: Daymen Ween

Stand: The Mollusk

Appearance: Daymen is a middle aged man wearing the uniform of the local aquarium and sea life shop he owns. He's a bigger fellow, with his hair balding to the point where there's only a little bit of hair on each side of his head.

Stand ability: Mollusk is able to mimic anything an aquatic creature can, only better, whether that would be laying flat on a thin layer of water like a flatfish, whipping his arm to electrocute things like an electric eel, or even regenerate lost limbs like an axolotl.

Has an affinity for ocean life and Jazz.

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There he laid on the ground, Daymen Ween, bloodied and wounded. Shizuka and Rocko were shocked, and didn't know if he was still alive. Cash saw a chance to approach the body.

"I'll give you this big guy, you put up one hell of a fight. You get my respect for lasting this long, but its over."

However, to Cash's surprise, Daymen started to get back up.

"I'm not dead yet you son of a bitch." Daymen said, his happy go lucky attitude was gone, and all that was left on his face was pure hate and anger. "With all these bullets in my body, I'd say I have at least an hour before I fall dead. I'm gonna use every second of that to give you hell. That was an impressive feat you did with your Highwaymen, but you haven't seen what Mollusk is fully capable of."

Suddenly, Mollusk stood up out of the water. This was the first time everyone able to get a full look of him when he wasn't floating in a tank. He was tall and muscular, still holding on to that vaguely humanoid shape, but with random tentacles and crab arms everywhere on his body. He wrapped 3 tentacles around Cash and jabbed a sharp point on its finger tip into Cash's rib.

"What you just got hit with was a stinger from a stingray. One of my role models was killed when a stinger like that hit his heart, and now you're going to have venom coursing through your lungs and body. I suggest you leave me and those two girls alone and go seek a hospital."

Cash wasn't having it, and he was able to fire his revolver into the ground a few times, creating 5 Highwaymen. As soon as the Highwaymen were created, Mollusk let go of cash and wrapped around Daymen and submerged back into the water. Cash used this opportunity to create more and more Highwaymen. There were at least 50 of them, and Cash started to look for Daymen. He noticed something though, something similar to his ability, the drops of rain in the sky had black figures in them.

"That son of a bitch, he put more of those Stingers in the rain drops."

All the Highwaymen began to fire at each other, and soon every Highwaymen was growing multiple arms. While there were only 50 of them, there were at least 200 guns among them. They began to fire at every rain drop with incredible precision, each rain drop evaporating on the heat of the bullet. It was almost like there was a giant umbrella over Cash. Mollusk and Daymen rose out of the water on the ground.

"Impressive, but I didn't just put stingers in the rain drops."

Cash noticed small fleshy strings falling from the sky, so many that it looked like a hundred pillows exploded in the sky. The Highwaymen did all they could to fire at every one of them, but there were too many. The second one of the strings touched Cash, his whole body seized in pain. These fleshy strings were Jellyfish Tentacles. They fell on all the Highwaymen, and they too convulsed in pain and fell dead to the ground. The Highwaymen were obviously easier to kill, as they were a lot more brittle than Cash. Daymen knew this attack wouldn't kill Cash, but it would wipe any Highwaymen out, plus putting Cash on the ground. Cash was able to fire one bullet into the ground, but before he could do anything else, Mollusk rose out of the ground and grabbed Cash by the collar. Mollusk was ready to throw a might punch, but a bullet struck his back. He didn't see it coming, so he could prepare the hard shells he has before. Mollusk and Daymen fell to the ground, and Cash stood back up and raised a gun to the two. But then cash heard footsteps on the wet road behind him.

Cash turned around to see Shizuka standing about 20 feet from Cash, still bleeding from the bullets that were fired at her before. Shizuka began to walk towards Cash.

"Oh, you're walking towards the man who has a gun. Very bold of you. Tell you what, I'll give you 5 seconds to get as close to me as you can, then I'll treat you like my shooting range."

Shizuka kept walking towards Cash without saying a word. After a few seconds, Cash began to fire at Shizuka. His aim couldn't be truer, and it went straight for the jugular, but before it could land, Achtung Baby blocked the bullet with its arm, creating a wound on Shizuka's own arm.

"You're crazy, you expect that you can just redirect the bullet wound somewhere else?"

Cash kept firing, and every time a bullet was about to land on a vital, Achtung Baby would block it and send the bullet wound somewhere else. Cash shot the ground to create a few Highwaymen, and they all shot at Shizuka as well. However, Achtung Baby was fast, and was able to redirect all of the bullets. Finally, one bullet was able to land on Shizuka's forehead, and she fell to the ground.

"Very bold, but very stupid." Cash said, "If you would have just stayed put, you would still be alive missy."

Rocko ran to Shizuka's body, and it seemed like Rocko was beginning to mourn. However, fake crying turned into laughing.

"What... what are you laughing about?" Cash said

But then Shizuka's dead body began to laugh as well, but it was a deep and bubbling laugh, almost like Shizuka was underwater. All of the bullet wounds suddenly vanished on Shizuka, and she began to morph and change into the Mollusk.

"WHAT?" Cash yelled

Before Cash could process what was going on, a sudden impact to his temple sent him flying through the air. His gun slipped out of his hand before he landed on the ground. He tried to scurry back to his gun, but the gun suddenly slid 5 feet away, and another blow to his face sent him back farther away from his precious gun. When he dropped his gun, all of the Highwaymen disappeared. Cash looked up, and saw Shizuka slowly become more visible. The realization hit Cash like a brick; The Mollusk, like and octopus, morphed into Shizuka when he was distracted, and the real Shizuka was invisible, walking behind the Mollusk using Achtung Baby to block the shots. The real Shizuka still had the bullet wounds from blocking the bullets, but she was still standing strong, even with what seemed like gallons of blood drenching her body.

Cash stood back up, "You think getting my gun away from me won't stop me from blowing chunks out of you with my Highwaymen?" he said

"Do it then, stop wasting my time." Shizuka replied

Cash began to sweat nervously. He didn't want to spill the fact that he can't use his stand when he doesn't have a gun in his hand, hence why the Highwaymen disappeared when he dropped his gun. "I have to have a spare around here somewhere." He thought to himself, patting all around his body looking for another gun. He couldn't find one, and he just looked at Shizuka, who was well aware of the fact that he couldn't use his stand anymore.

Cash began to run, and Daymen quickly got swallowed by the Mollusk and chased after him. Rocko and Shizuka, while injured, were able to run with him, and they eventually saw him approach a boat in a dock not far from the Quebec Aquarium. There was another man already in the boat, but Cash pushed him into the water and started the engine. He quickly shot off into the water, and for a second, Rocko and Shizuka thought he was going to get away. But Daymen continued to walk to the edge of the dock. Suddenly, Mollusk appeared in the water.

"Have you guys ever heard of a pistol shrimp?" Daymen asked, "They're one of the most feared crustaceans in the sea, they create a bubble in their claw full of so much pressure, its like getting hit with a bullet to any fish unfortunate enough to come face to face with it."

After Daymen said this, Mollusk suddenly shot through the ocean water at and incredible speed. A moment later, when the Mollusk caught up to Cash in the boat, a huge explosion of water suddenly threw him and the boat in the air. It was almost like a sea mine underneath the cold ocean waves. About 5 minutes later, an unconscious Cash washed back up near the dock. Mollusk grabbed him and put him on the dock.

The two looked at the unconscious body, and then Shizuka spoke. "What do we do with him?"

"Maybe we can bring him back to the Night Watch and have him questioned." Rocko replied.

Rocko turned to Daymen, who was already walking away.

"Hey, where are you going?" She said, "I want to make you an offer. Please join us. You're stand is incredible, and you would make a great addition to our team."

Daymen heard the offer, and just smiled

"I appreciate the offer, but I'm afraid I must decline." Daymen said, "While Mollusk is a good fighter, I belong in that shop, selling fish, and making people happy."

"Well don't go to a hospital for those injuries." Shizuka said, pulling out her phone and began texting someone.

Josuke was at his hotel room, enjoying an iced coffee, when he heard a knock on his door. He went over to answer the door, and saw a bloody Daymen, a hole covered Shizuka, and a wounded Rocko.

"Hey Josuke, think you could give us a little hand?"

Shizuka walked back to the funeral home to get the car. She was fully healed thanks to crazy diamond, and made a safe drive back home. When she got home, she asked Suzie if she could look through Joseph's office, and Suzie said that would be fine. When she looked around, she found something that suddenly helped her remember where she saw the Night Watch symbol.

When Shizuka was only 6, Joseph brought her to the Robbin's Reef Lighthouse. She was amazed, and drew a picture of the lighthouse shining into the stars. In the middle of the light was her and her father. When she was looking at this old drawing from her childhood, tears started to fall onto the picture.

"Oh, that was your father's favorite picture." Suzie said, "Whenever he would make a trip, he would fold it up into a tiny square and keep it in his pocket."

Shizuka paused for a moment, then spoke

"I miss him so much"

"Me too dear."

BREAKING NEWS:

Police were shocked to be called in to find a body in an alley in Albany. While the exact nature of the murder is unknown, the scene is gruesome. The body was found in 10 equal chunks laying around in the alley. The identity of the body was discovered to be a drug dealer wanted by the police in that area. Stay tuned for more of the story as it develops.

===To=Be=Continued===


	12. Chapter 12, 24 deaths at Mariners

Name: W. K. Cash

Stand: Highwayman

Appearance: Dressed in country attire; Leather boots, blue jeans, a belt holding his gun holster, and a plaid button up shirt with a red jacket sporting the symbol of the Larks in Aspic gang. His hair is cut into a grid shape.

Stand Ability: A stand armed with a gun and incredible aim. If the stand shoots an inanimate object, it creates a living copy of the stand. If fired at the copy, it will create another copy out of the dead Highwayman.

Has an affinity for vintage rifles and old war movies.

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Shizuka awoke in the middle of the night. She checked her phone to see it was only 1am. She had the dream again, about the tall headed creature stalking her in the streets, scraping the ground as it walked towards her. She didn't scream again, as she was used to it. The dream was coming back to her again and again, and she couldn't seem to get the tall headed creature out of her mind. She decided that she needed fresh air, so she got dressed and went on a walk. The rain didn't stop since her encounter with the Highwaymen the previous day, and the cold night time temperature in New York turned the wet rain into a slushy snow. It was a very quiet walk, and Shizuka really needed the peace; after joining a group she knew nothing about, after the funeral of her only father figure, and after the long battle with Cash. She must have walked for hours, but she couldn't tell. Walking in the night is therapeutic, and one often looses themselves in their thoughts, filling in the spaces between the night stars. She was brought back to after seeing a large commotion around the corner though.

She soon saw a dozen police cars and ambulances blaring in front of the Mariners Apartment Complex, and bodies upon bodies were being rushed out of the building. She tried to approach, but was stopped by a large police officer.

"Sorry ma'am, I can't let you in here." he said

"It's ok, she's with me." said a familiar voice.

She looked to the side of the cop to see Josuke and Okuyasu behind the yellow tape that separated her from the cars and ambulances. She quickly ran over to Josuke's side.

"How are you guys able to get in here?" Shizuka asked

To Shizuka's surprise, Josuke and Okuyasu showed her their police badges. She recalled Josuke and Okuyasu saying they became officers in their hometown of Morioh, but she must have forgotten about that until now.

"You guys are from japan though, how are you allowed to show up here in New York?" Shizuka asked

"They said we can take a look, but we can't get involved in the case, and we aren't allowed in the building either." Josuke replied

"Well what did you find out?" Shizuka asked

"There was a series of murders all in the span of 5 minutes." Josuke said, "All of the victims seem to have been strangled to death. Here's the weird part, strangling someone usually takes around 1 minute. They've found 24 dead people inside this complex, which has a max occupancy of 25. The papers show that every apartment is being used, so someone is still in there. What boggles my mind is how someone is able to break into someones apartment, take 1 minute to strangle them, then move on to the next until they've killed 24 people in the span of 5 minutes. It seems impossible."

"Do you think it's the work of a stand?" Shizuka asked

Josuke paused, then answered. "I don't know, but it seems likely."

"Well, do you guys WANT to go in?" Shizuka asked

"Well..." Josuke said

"YES!" Okuyasu interrupted.

Shizuka put her finger to her mouth, as if she was gesturing the two to be quiet. From the feet up, she slowly turned invisible, and so did Josuke and Okuyasu. The three sneaked past the police and paramedics and were able to get into the entrance of the building. They went in the first door to the right, but as soon as they went in, another cop came screaming and crying from the door to the left. The other police seemed startled by the behavior of the officer that just came running out, and they asked what was wrong.

"I looked into a room in the top floor to see if there were any dead bodies, and there was a woman, sitting on the chair."

Did she need help? was she hurt? Is she the killer? The police all asked these questions at the same time

"LET ME FINISH." the shaken officer yelled, "She was smiling, she looked right at me, and smiled. Not just any smile, it was unnatural, almost forced."

Shizuka, Okuyasu, and Josuke were sneaking around in the building, going from room to room, only to find that each room was already searched and emptied by the police and paramedics. That was except for one door that they tried to open, but was locked shut. Josuke knocked on the door, and heard something coming towards the door. The door opened, and what seemed to be a young woman was there at the door. However, the door was only open a crack and the woman seemed to be purposefully keeping her face out of the view from outside.

"Hello, miss?" Josuke said

"Angie. Please leave." The girl said abruptly.

"Now hang on, are you not aware that everyone inside this complex besides you died tonight?" Josuke said.

As Josuke said this, he felt something strange, a slight squeeze on his leg, right next to his foot. It wasn't hard, but like an old lady would see if a tomato was ripe.

"Now, are you going to let us in, or are we going to force ourselves in?" Okuyasu said

The woman showed her face, and the three were horrified. Angie was smiling, her smile so wide it almost reached the sides of her head. There was a tear in her eye, and she had an incredible look of pain and sadness in her eyes.

"Please, you need to leave, now" the girl said calmly through her teeth.

"Alright, I guess we're forcing ourselves in." Okuyasu said

Okuyasu kicked in the door, sending Angie to the ground. As he did this, he felt a firm grasp on his leg, which went away after a second. It was hard, and it felt like it could have left a bruise. Okuyasu thought it was strange, but then again, he ate a lot of fast food yesterday, so maybe his body was just trying to punish him, he thought.

"Please, you don't know what you're doing, get out." Angie said through her clenched teeth.

"We're not going anywhere until you tell us what you know." Okuyasu said

"GET OUT, GET OUT NOW." Angie yelled, losing her creepy smile

As she was yelling Okuyasu felt the grasp on his leg again, but he felt it going up his leg. But as quickly as it came, it went away again. Angie had her creepy smile again. Okuyasu pulled Josuke to the side, and began to talk to him in private.

"Josuke, do you think this lady is a stand user?"

"I'm not sure, but I think I can find out."

Josuke began to walk towards the smiling woman, casually whistling while doing so. After a moment, Crazy Diamond came flying out and threw a punch towards Angie's face, stopping when its fist was only inches away from her face. Angie screamed and threw herself back. As she did this, Josuke felt a very strong grasp on his leg, which slowly rose up his body. When the pain rose to his chest, he was horrified to see a bulge in the shape of a hand under the skin of his chest, and the hand was rising up to his neck.

===To=Be=Continued===

Attention: There will be another brief hiatus before the next chapter. Thanks for supporting and thanks for understanding.


	13. Chapter 13, Angie has Issues (Part 1)

Josuke did all he could to try and stop the hand underneath his skin, but he couldn't stop it from rising closer and closer to his neck. Suddenly, the hand stopped, and he looked back at Angie, who was smiling her unnatural smile again.

"Please, you need to leave, I'm trying to help you guys." Angie said through her teeth.

Miss Angie was very thin and pale, wearing clothes that she must have bought from a thrift store. The place was very run down too, and Josuke and Okuyasu decided to look around.

"If you don't mind Shizuka, I think you should go home." Josuke said, "This is definitely the stand that killed everyone who lives in this complex, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if that happened to you."

Shizuka simply shrugged her shoulders and left. After she left, Okuyasu and Josuke searched the place. Angie seemed to be allowing this, although she probably wasn't happy with these two men going through all of her stuff. Okuyasu eventually came across something.

"Drug Paraphernalia, and a lot of it." Okuyasu said, "Looks like Angie was a heavy user, huh?"

Okuyasu looked through all of the tools, and noticed a weird package, one that looked like it carried pills. There weren't any brands or labels, except for a single phrase, "Beast of Burden"

"Hmm, is this like a flavor, or what?" Okuyasu asked Angie

Angie simply nodded her head. "It was one of the options the dealer gave me."

"Do you know the dealer?" Josuke asked

"I didn't get his name, nor could I see his face."

"What kind of drug was it? It looks like a pill." Okuyasu asked

"I don't want to talk about it." Angie said

The two were unsatisfied, and started to look further into the mysterious wrapping. They noticed something odd, there was a tiny bit of dust on the bottom of the wrapping. The dust was almost a shiny yellow, but they couldn't tell much from the tiny amount on the bottom of the packaging. Josuke took his finger and gently dabbed it into the dust, and he smelt it, inhaling only enough to get any scent, but also so it doesn't get inhaled into his lungs.

"It doesn't have a scent," Josuke said, "This doesn't look like anything I've seen before."

"I got it in Albany." Angie said, "It's a new drug. You take that dust and you devolve it in water, boil it in a spoon, and inject it into your body."

What Angie said next, Josuke and Okuyasu weren't prepared to hear.

"And I took that about a week ago, and ever since then, this weird thing has been happening to me, the hands that killed all those people."

"Woah, hold the fuck up," Okuyasu said, "You're telling me that you got a stand ability from taking a form of heroine?"

"I don't know what you mean by stand, but this feeling of having this creature inside of me happened as soon as I took the drug."

Josuke and Okuyasu couldn't believe what they were hearing. They've heard of odd things like animals, plants, and even places seemingly having supernatural oddities to them, but from drugs? There had to be something else in play here, they thought to themselves.

"Can you explain to me how you discovered you had this presence with you?" Josuke asked.

"Well," Angie began to explain, "This all started on the morning after I took the drug. I was walking to the super market, and I noticed that everyone who I walked by seemed to look at their leg, as if checking for something. I didn't think much of it, as it was raining that morning, so I was just guessing that everyone was checking to see if their pants were getting wet. That was until I was walking back home. This shitty little kid ran into me and made me drop all my groceries. I gave him a piece of my mind, but before I knew it, his neck was bruised and he was lying dead on the ground. I ran back home, in tears. What happened to that boy, I didn't now at the time, but everyone I ran past was holding their necks as if something was strangling them. I haven't been caught by any cops, so I'm wondering if they even think its me, but the only thing that seems to keep the hands from killing people is if I keep smiling."

Josuke and Okuyasu felt chills, this was definitely a stand. No, with how it was behaving, this was more of a curse. They racked their brains trying to figure out how they can fix this, but nothing was coming to mind.

"Please, I don't want this anymore, help me." Angie said, tears running down her cheeks. She quickly wiped them off, so that the two men in her apartment didn't feel the hands on their legs.

"How about this, we can take you far away to a cabin somewhere in the woods, we can contact a friend of ours and you can be taken care of." Josuke said

Angie, still weeping and furiously wiping her tears, shook her head in disagreement. "It won't matter, it seems that whoever is the closest will be killed."

Suddenly, the Three of them hear marching up the stairs and into the hallway. The other officers were coming. Josuke and Okuyasu saw a window on the other side of the room, and Okuyasu grabbed both Josuke and Angie. They ran for the window, and jumped out.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Angie screamed

Suddenly, Angie noticed a muscular figure behind Okuyasu, wearing blue sports gear and decorated with a dollar sign and yen symbol. The figure had blinders on the sides of its face, looking like it might hinder the creatures vision. The figure raised its open hand, which had two small balls in it, and the figure reeled back and swiped the air. Amazingly, in the blink of an eye, the three were above the roof of another apartment complex. How could this be, Angie thought to herself, the complex they were above was clear across the street from her own complex. They fell onto the roof, it hurt, but they were away from the cops.

"Okuyasu you crazy son of a bitch." Josuke said, "At least warn us before you're gonna try and teleport us with the Hand."

"Hey, I didn't think about that." Okuyasu said, "Besides, nobody in the streets should have seen us, the snow is too thick."

Stand name: The Hand

User: Okuyasu Nijimura

===To=Be=Continued===

Attention: To avoid burn out, I will be releasing a new chapter every other day, instead of daily like I was doing it before. Expect either 3-4 chapters a week.


	14. Chapter 14, Angie Has Issues (Part 2)

Name: Okuyasu Nijimura

Stand name: The Hand

Appearance: Sleeked back black hair with the sides shaven. Usually wears a gray tank top, although if its cold, he does have a plaid jacket. He has tattoos on his arms, one arm has the dollar sign, and the other has the yen symbol. Wears blue baggy pants and black fashionable shoes.

Stand Ability: The Hand's right hand has 2 bulbs in the center of it, and if this specific hand touches anything, it will "Scrape" it away. Once this object is out of existence, the surrounding objects will slam together, as if nothing was removed. It can even swipe the air between Okuyasu and another object, giving him the ability to almost teleport. Not even Okuyasu knows where the objects The Hand erases will end up. The Hand is a very deadly stand with almost unlimited potential, but is limited by Okuyasu's straight forward attitude.

Has an affinity for comic books and old blues.

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Without warning, The hand swiped its hand in the air again, and once again, the three are above a completely different building in what seemed like a blink of an eye. Josuke seemed used to this, but Angie was terrified. She kept her smile, but she couldn't believe what was happening. Other people having this sort of ability, and on top of that, ones that they can control. Why was Angie unfortunate enough to get this curse of an ability?

Eventually, the three were in an alley way, far away from the apartment complex.

"What the hell Okuyasu?" Josuke said, "We're obstructing justice by doing this, those officers were going to get Angie."

"And then what was going to happen Josuke?" Okuyasu replied, "Hopefully nothing, but what if Angie loses her cool, and kills all those officers, or worse, the cops realize whats going on and take fire at her?"

After a pause, Josuke nodded. Angie listened to all of this, and was horrified. She didn't think that she would be treated as some sort of hazardous object, she didn't mean to kill all of those people, but she's cursed to kill.

Josuke looked around to see where they were. They eventually found a street sign, and they realized they weren't far from Shizuka's home. Josuke leaded the party out of sight of Shizuka's home, not because he was worried, but if Shizuka saw them, she would of course follow. Finally, Josuke had time to think about the revelation that just hit him, a drug gave this woman a stand.

"How is this possible?" Josuke said, "The only ways I've seen people acquire stands are from the arrow, or if they're born with it. I got my stand after recovering from a horrible fever, so people can manifest one at some point in their lives. This has to be what happened to you Angie."

Angie nodded in agreement, although she didn't know what any of that meant. Angie doesn't know what a stand is, or what the arrow is. All she knows is that she got this cursed ability after injecting that drug.

"Can you tell me what exactly happened when you got this drug from the dealer?" Josuke said

Angie thought about it, and then spoke. "I drove to Albany about a week and a half ago go get my usual order from my dealer. My dealer is just one of a few in that area, and they work together. He has a deep voice and a tattoo of a pair of lips on his wrist. I'm sorry, but I couldn't get more of his appearance. After I bought what I usually get from him, he offered me this new drug that his friends came up with, and he offered me to try it for free. I was skeptical, but I took it. I didn't feel like even touching it until a week ago. After that, this all happened. I'm very confident that it was THAT drug that gave me this... thing."

"Does he have a usual spot?" Okuyasu asked, "Maybe we can go and see him, see what the hell is going on with this drug."

"He did," Angie said, "But he was murdered, found chopped in several pieces in an alley."

Josuke recalled seeing it on the news, a man found cut into 10 equal pieces scattered all across the alley. This connection shocked Josuke.

"Someone else wants the drug." Josuke said in realization. "Someone else knows about this drug. I still don't believe it, but this drug must have truly given Angie her stand, and someone else wants this drug."

"SO MUCH that he would cut a man into pieces?" Okuyasu said, "We've seen people do crazy things for their fix, but this is something different."

"Its not the fix Okuyasu, don't you see it?" Josuke said, "A drug that can give someone powerful abilities could seem very valuable, they want it for the power."

"But who is this person?" Okuyasu said, "We're completely helpless to do anything if we don't know the guy."

"I don't now." Josuke said, looking to the ground.

Suddenly, the three heard sirens, all across the area.

"Shit, they're looking for Angie." Josuke said

"They must have saw the broken window, and thought she ran away." Okuyasu said

"We have to keep moving." Josuke replied.

Josuke, Okuyasu, and Angie ran down the alley, but they heard the sirens approaching on that end, and the same for the other end. Josuke looked around frantically, before pulling out Crazy Diamond and punched the wooden fencing on the side. They walked through the debris, but before Angie could look back, the wooden fence was back exactly the way it was. There was a stone wall on the side of a building, and Josuke punched right through it, and then the next, and then the next. They weren't going around the buildings, or above them, they were going through them. Almost like magic, every wall Crazy Diamond punched through would go back to how it was, looking completely unharmed. They eventually found a staircase in one of the buildings, and ran up them and onto the roof. The light snow turned into a full blown blizzard, and it became difficult to even see the streets from the roof. It felt like they were on a building floating in the sky, and all they could see through the thick white of the cold slush was the sirens of police cruisers.

Their footprints laid fresh on the ground, almost a foot deep. Josuke noticed something strange though, a fourth set of foot prints, seemingly stopping just as Josuke looked at them. Josuke kicked some snow towards the prints, and heard a squeal and saw the snow stop in mid air when above the footprints. He then sighed

"Shizuka, what did I tell you?"

===To=Be=Continued===


	15. Chapter 15, Angie Has Issues (Part 3)

Name: Miss Angie

Stand: Beast of Burden

Appearance: Angie is a very thin and pale woman with red hair and cheap clothes from random thrift stores. Because of her ability, she always has a fake smile, but her true emotions can be seen in her eyes.

Stand Ability: If anything but happiness is shown on Angie's face, hands will creep up the closest persons body under their skin, eventually reaching their neck and snapping it with a very strong grasp.

Has an affinity for old 50s movies and alcohol.

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Josuke, Okuyasu, and Angie looked on as Shizuka made herself visible. It became obvious that she was following them, and never actually left Mariner's. Josuke gave her a strong look of disappointment, and spoke.

"I thought I told you to go home Shizuka." He said

"I know, but listen, about the drug dealer..." Shizuka said, but was interrupted.

"No, you need to go home Shizuka, right now." Josuke said

"No, you don't understand, the same person who killed the drug dealer killed our dad."

Josuke paused. His look of disappointment turned into confusion and disbelief.

"No, Joseph died peacefully in his sleep Shizuka. All this talk about drug dealers and murder has got you all riled up."

Shizuka gave Josuke an angry look, and reached into her pocket and pulled out a small piece of a photo.

"Look at this photo. I lost some of the scraps, but I knew you could fix it." She said

Josuke took the piece of photo and used Crazy Diamond to attempt to fix it. While the pieces were soggy, dozens of tiny pieces of paper came flying from every direction towards the scrap he was holding. Eventually, the image became clear. Josuke dropped the photo in shock. Just like Rocko showed Shizuka, it was Joseph's autopsy, where it was discovered that his heart was split into 10 equal pieces.

"See what I mean, that drug dealer Angie mentioned was killed almost the exact same way, split into..." Shizuka said, but was interrupted by Josuke and Okuyasu

"10 equal pieces." Josuke and Okuyasu said at the same time.

"But if this WAS the same person, why would they kill Joseph?" Josuke asked, "We already guessed that the dealers death would have to do with the drug Angie used, but why Joseph? That old man may have been a sleaze, but he would never dip his toes in drugs."

This was true. Joseph had his fair share of alcohol and affairs in his life, but Joseph always had a distaste for drugs. He would go on and on to Shizuka about how drugs can kill a man faster than a gun. But then again, Shizuka had no clue about The Night Watch, so who knows what else she knew about Joseph could have been wrong. She always knew him as a calm and at home father, who barely had the energy to get out of his home, but more and more, every day, that was becoming more of a lie.

While they were collecting their thoughts, they heard stomping, and lots of it. The noise was making its way up the stairs to the roof. Without hesitation, Shizuka grabbed everyone, turned them invisible, and dove into the snow. The snow was a good foot deep on the roof, and the snow was coming down so harshly that the indent of their invisible bodies under the snow was easily covered up by fresh white slush. Eventually, the door swung open, hard enough to break the hinges off if they weren't double bolted to the wall. They heard the crunching of the snow underneath the officers boots, but they couldn't see them. Shizuka didn't dare peer above the snow, in fear that the cops would see them right away. However, Shizuka was able to make a small invisible hole below her, and look into the floor below them. The cops were still rushing by the door on the floor below, but the room they were looking into was completely empty. Okuyasu's stand reeled its fist back, and punched straight through the floor, but with the snow, the sound was muffled. With its arm through the floor, it swiped at the air towards the door in the room. After a brief moment, the door broke its bolt and flew open. The cops heard this, and rushed down below. After they cleared the roof, the four stood back up, and immediately used The Hand to get to another building top.

After they looked back at the roof they were just on, Josuke noticed why they stormed that building. The wall right before the staircase was still broken, Josuke must have forgotten to fix it.

"Good job" Okuyasu said

"Shut up" Josuke said

Whatever the case, it didn't matter. They were in the clear. They hopped down to an alley below, but they stayed invisible. They noticed that their footprints were almost immediately getting filled back up with fresh snow, so they could walk freely through the streets. Cops were still walking around the streets, so they had to stay quiet. They began to notice every cop was looking at their leg. Angie was losing her cool, and they had to get out of there quickly. They ducked into another alleyway, and Shizuka made everyone visible so they could see what was wrong with Angie. The second they became visible however, an officer noticed them. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at the four.

"Ok, I got you guys, you're done running. Now I just want you guys to come quietly, you're under arrest for the genocide at Mariner's"

Josuke, Okuyasu, and Shizuka all tried to reason with the cop, but Angie stayed quiet. She began to walk towards the officer.

"HEY, STAY RIGHT THERE." the cop yelled, pointing the gun at Angie.

Josuke noticed something horrible, Angie was closer to the officer then she was to the rest of the party. Before he could say anything however, he saw the officer grabbing at his neck, before suddenly falling to the ground. After the cop fell dead, Angie reached for the officers gun. She turned back around, and had a smile on her face. It was different though, this smile seemed genuine, and there were tears running down her face. Josuke can feel the hand going up his leg, and begged Angie to wipe away her tears, but Angie shook her head in disagreement.

"I'm done doing this Josuke. Thanks for your help this far." Angie said beginning to raise the gun.

"Angie, just hang on, if you kill us, we won't be able to help you."

Angie kept smiling. "This is the only way to fix this. I wasn't planning on killing you."

Without another word, Angie raised the gun, put the barrel into her mouth, and pulled the trigger.

===To=Be=Continued===


	16. Chapter 16, Angie Has Issues (Part 4)

Everyone reacted differently. Josuke and Okuyasu were police officers, and they've seen their fair share of things on service. One could call it a mental callus of sorts. Shizuka, however, didn't have this advantage. Her eyes were wide open, and she just stood silently, looking on as Angie's lifeless body falls into the snow. Not a single sound came from Shizuka's mouth, however, the sound of several officers running towards the alley filled the air, snow crunching and guns being loaded and raised. Whether she was even aware, or if it was purely out of instinct, Shizuka turned invisible once the cops started rushing towards her, Josuke, and Okuyasu. Okuyasu quickly grabbed Josuke and used The Hand to get to the top of the building. Thankfully, the cops below didn't see them, but they did see the grim scene in the alley; an officer laid strangled on the ground, and only a few feet from him was Angie's dead body, killed by her own hand. Josuke and Okuyasu listened to the conversation the cops had after finding the two bodies.

"Jesus, someone's going to have to go see Harry's family." A young female officer said.

The cops looked at each other, and realized that this was the woman an officer at Mariner's said he saw in the final room they checked out. They IDed her, and found her to be Miss Angie.

"So, this is our killer?" Another male officer abruptly said after a few moments of silence.

"I guess, it matches the profile from the suspect that ran off back in Mariner's" The female officer replied. "Besides, Harry is dead right next to her, strangled in the same matter as the other residents of Mariner's."

"So a murder suicide?" The male officer said.

"Undoubtedly" The female officer finished.

While they were calling for ambulances and more officers to arrive, Josuke noticed footsteps walking away from the alley, covered almost instantly by the harsh unyielding blizzard. Josuke assumed this was Shizuka, walking away quietly after seeing what she just saw. Josuke leaned back and rubbed his face. Even with the "Mental Callus" he felt like he let Angie down. Okuyasu is also visibly shaken, feeling it didn't need to end this way.

"This is fucked." Okuyasu said, "We could have saved her, she would still be alive, but we fucked up."

Josuke noticed the shakiness in Okuyasu's voice, almost on the urge of tears. Josuke has known Okuyasu for a very long time, and while Okuyasu likes to act tough and pretend that he's above feelings, Josuke knows that he has a big heart. Josuke paused for a moment while Okuyasu talked to himself, and then he stood up. He was over looking the crime scene below, and then he spoke.

"Okuyasu, we're canceling our flight back to Japan." Josuke said. He didn't expect Okuyasu would have any objection. "We're going to get to the bottom of this. It's one thing when its just a drug, but that drug is giving people stands. Not only that, but Joseph was killed, seemingly being involved with whatever is going on."

After he said this, Okuyasu stood up and and looked at Josuke, nodding his head. The two looked over the city. The building they were on top of was only 4 stories tall, but it still gave them an amazing view of the city, that was, if the snow wasn't blanketing the whole city in a thick misty white.

"Josuke," Okuyasu said, "We both have families, they will wonder where we both are, what if we die?"

Josuke looked over to Okuyasu Without a moment of hesitation, he replied

"Then we die, but I'm not just going to let this go."

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One could say that death is desensitized, that we've gotten used to seeing blood and gore and violence in television and video games, but reality is a whole different thing. Shizuka saw someone die, and no man or woman forgets that. She walked slowly down the street, staying invisible until she was out of sight from the cops. After she turned the corner, she undid the effects of Achtung Baby, and she walked down the snowy street. A thin layer of snow was gathering on her head and shoulders, but she didn't care. So many things were rushing through her head; the connection between Angie's drug dealer and Josephs death, Angie's suicide, and this overwhelming sense of dread and confusion she's having about her own father. She walked down the street for a while, until she saw her home only a block away.

As she was walking towards her house, she heard something behind her. It was like the sound of a snow shovel digging away snow. She turned around expecting to see someone clearing out the stairs to their homes, but she didn't see anything. This kept happening until she began to get nervous. She was almost home, just a few more apartments until she was at her own, but she felt something, two large hands with disturbingly long fingers reach from behind her, grabbing her chin and the top of her head. Something emerged into her field of vision, a familiar face, or rather, a lack of. The familiar tall cylindrical head of the creature that's been haunting her dreams appeared in the corner of her eye. It didn't do or say anything. Its head rattled and twitched violently, making a deep popping sound every time its head twitched. Shizuka couldn't move, almost like she was paralyzed. Not paralyzed as in she couldn't move her body, but she was frozen in absolute horror. After a moment, the Creature began to pull her away from her home. She screamed, so loud the whole neighborhood should have woken up, if it wasn't for the sound muffling snow around her. Achtung Baby appeared in front of her and threw a punch towards the creature's head, but almost as fast as the punch was thrown, the creature disappeared. She quickly turned around, and saw something dash around the corner, almost the entire block away from Shizuka. She ran the rest of the way home, screaming with tears rushing down her face. She quickly ran into the elevator, ran into her home, and slammed the door shut and locked it. She kept crying though, knowing this creature has been in her home before.

She ran into her room. It was 5am, and she didn't even bother to get the snow off her head and shoulders, instead she sat in the corner with her hands to her knees, nervously watching any windows or doors to her room. Horrified, she realized she didn't close her door, and saw the creature peer at her from the other side, head twitching and bobbing around. This faceless thing was more horrifying than if it did have facial features. Shizuka couldn't tell what this thing was, or what it wanted, its motivations, its feelings. All she could see was its bobbing head twitch around, while the rest of its body was almost frozen, like it was in ice. Her whole room was silent, and the only things she could hear was the deep popping sound coming from the creature, and her panicked and hysterical breathing.

Without warning, the creature suddenly backed way from the door, and vanished into air. Shizuka doesn't remember what happened next, as the next thing she knew, she woke up in the same corner she was in that morning, except now it was almost 1 pm. She must have passed out. She quickly showered and got dressed, but she was still shakey.

"Shizuka?" Suzie Q said in her sweet elderly voice, "You got a visitor dear."

Shizuka doesn't know why, but this sent her into a panic, she hid behind her bed and waited for whoever came to see her to walk through the door. She was hit with a tsunami of relief when she saw Rocko walk in.

"What's up?" Rocko said, hands in the pockets of her leather jacket.

"H-hey!" Shizuka said, still shaken up.

"Jesus Shizuka, you look like shit, what happened?" Rocko said concerned.

"Um, nothing, just a long night" Shizuka said with a fake smile on her face, "I just woke up."

"Hm, alright, well come on hon, the Night Watch is having a teaming."

The two began to leave the apartment, the streets covered with almost a foot of snow, but the sun was shining. while walking through the streets to the Night Watch's meeting place, Shizuka suddenly remembered something.

"Last night, I found something else about Joseph's death." Shizuka said abruptly.

Rocko raised an eyebrow. "Whatchu got?"

"Do you know that new's report of a drug dealer getting chopped into 10 pieces?" Shizuka said

Rocko nodded "Yeah, but we have no clue who the dealer is, so as much of a breakthrough that is, we can't do anything with it yet."

"Well, I talked to someone who got drugs from him." Shizuka said "She couldn't give a clear description of the dealers face, but she mentioned something about a tattoo of a pair of lips on his hand. Does that help at all?" Shizuka said

Rocko continued to look at Shizuka. Her widened eyes went back to normal, and she smiled.

"Well hon, I know what we're going to do today." Rocko said, "We're going to go gather the rest of the crew, then we're going to have a little chat with the Ladies of the Road."


	17. Chapter 17, Let's Eat Pizza

Stand Fact: Achtung Baby has actually evolved twice since Shizuka was an infant, Once when she was a toddler, and once when she reached her teenage years.

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"Ladies of the Road?" Shizuka said

"They are another gang we've been keeping an eye on." Rocko Replied, "They're not as destructive as The Larks in Aspic, but they still have a bit of questionable behavior; Drugs, prostitution, hits, basically anything that'll give them money, they'll do it."

Shizuka nodded. They walked through the cold afternoon in the snow covered New York. The snow was a good foot deep, and Shizuka was dressed well for it; snow shoes, a large fuzzy parka, and the scarf her mother knitted with love. While Shizuka was nice and warm, Rocko didn't have the same luxuries, as the only thing that even kept her from freezing was her leather jacket. With Rocko's shaking however, it was clear that the jacket was doing very little to keep the temperature from getting to her. It was about an hour before they reached the entrance to the Night Watch's hideout, but the odd slab of concrete that blocked the door the last time they were here was gone.

"Oh yeah, Rick went out to get pizza." Rocko said while opening the door. "Hey Harold, Rick is getting pepperoni and bacon, right?" She yelled while descending down the stairs.

"Uh, now's not a good time Rocko" Said Harold Land at the bottom of the long staircase.

Shizuka and Rocko talked about pizza, and Shizuka was about disclose her least favorite toppings when Rocko suddenly wrapped her hands over Shizuka's mouth to stop her from talking, and dragged her into another room. Before they got into the room, however, Shizuka caught a very small glimpse of something standing next to Harold, but she couldn't make out any features. When they were in the room, Shizuka attempted to get answers.

"Rocko, what wa-"

"SHHH" Rocko said, "Never talk around Harold's stand, even whispering is risky." she whispered so quietly that her words were barely audible at all.

Shizuka was curious, so she went to the door and made a tiny hole invisible so she can see. Sure enough, she caught a glimpse of Harold's stand. The stand looked like a woman seemingly made out of stone, as there were chips and cracks all over her body. She was holding her hands over her chest where her heart would be. Her eyes were closed and she had a very neutral face. Her head had hair, completely still like a statue, and the same color as the rest of her body, a sort of bronze, and had a halo floating over her head. The figure was very conflicting inside of Shizuka, as it looked both beautiful and uncanny at the same time.

"What is that?" Shizuka said very quietly to Rocko

"That is Nirvana, Harold's Stand. He's trying to use her to get information out of Cash."

Almost as soon as Rocko said this, Nirvana faded, and Harold began to walk into the room, opening the door.

"I'm not getting any luck, Nirvana is no good at this thing. We should wait till Rick gets back and see if he can get anything from Cash here." Harold said, "Honestly I don't know why you guys made me try and interrogate him, all Nirvana is going to do is look at him and make him happier."

"What does Nirvana do?" Shizuka asked.

"Hmm, maybe I can demonstrate." Harold said, "Talk about something you like, but only that."

As soon as Harold said this, Nirvana came back, facing its face at Shizuka.

"Um, well I like pizza." Shizuka said

When Shizuka said this, she saw Nirvana begin to smile. Suddenly, Shizuka recalled a memory of eating pizza with Rocko before they got to the hideout. This was bizarre, as this never happened. After Rocko came and picked her up, they went straight to the hideout. After the memory, Shizuka looked back at Nirvana and Harold, then Harold began to speak.

"That was Nirvana's ability. She can create or remove memories after hearing the keywords, such as like, or dislike. I just created a positive memory inside your head. I didn't demonstrate her removing memories ability, since she can be quite... troublesome. Once someone said they didn't like Wednesdays, and to this day, they swear on their life there are only 6 days a week."

"What about you?" Shizuka said, "Don't you have to watch what you say around your own stand?"

"That's the catch." Harold said, "My stand doesn't work when I try to use it on myself. Trust me, there are some stuff I'd like to forget."

Shizuka nodded. This was an interesting stand to her, as ever since she began to fight other stand users, they would all pretty much use physical attacks. But this stand's ability was psychological. After that, she turned to see Cash tied to a chair near a desk, with his gun safely on the other side of the room. Shizuka and Rocko both tried to use their stands to force information out of him, but their stands abilities wouldn't be able to do much in this situation. They of course could use their stands to punch him, but he's already had quite the beating the previous day. However, they heard sizzling near the top of the staircase, and saw the muscular greaser walk down the stairs with two large pizzas in his hands. Rocko immediately went over to check and make sure her beloved Pepperoni and Bacon pizza was there, and was delighted to see the cheese covered beauty. While the others tried to interrogate Cash, Rocko digged in.

"And uh, here's your pineapple Harold." Rick said

As soon as Shizuka saw the pineapple pizza, she had a disgusted look on her face.

"Were you able to get any info out of this guy?" Rick said.

"No, we thought you'd be able to get something out of him with your stand?" Rocko said with a mouth full of pizza.

Rick grabbed a two slices of the bacon and pepperoni. He walked over to Cash and untied his hands and gave him a slice. Cash was still tied by his chest, so he wouldn't be able to run away. Rick grabbed another chair and sat on it backwards. He looked at Cash for an awfully long time. Both he and Cash were able to finish their slice of pizza before Rick said anything.

"Wait, what were we trying to get from this guy?" Rick said after looking around for a bit.

"Dammit Rick we're trying to find out why this guy was shooting up stores near the aquarium yesterday." Harold said

"Ah, sorry, I forget things sometimes." Rick said while tapping his head. "So anyway, are you going to talk?"

"I ain't saying shit." Cash said, spitting towards Rick and landing on his shoe.

When this happened, everyone went silent. Rick didn't show any emotion on his face, and everyone was just waiting for something to happen.

"Don't kill him Rick, please." Rocko said

Rick began to chuckle to himself. He grabbed a napkin that came with the pizza's and wiped Cash's spit off his shoe. He enjoyed another piece of pizza, which took another 5 minutes. Afterwards, he walked over to Cash. Suddenly, a hand of bone came out of nowhere and grabbed Cash by the neck and threw him to the ground. After a bit, Shizuka noticed something strange, the ceiling was dripping. When the drops fell to the ground, it quickly made a puddle of black liquid, so dark that it looked like a black hole.

"Now, I can only use this thing for an hour a day." Rick said, "So you better make this quick." After saying this, Rick got up to get yet another slice of pizza.

"What if I don't say anything?" Cash said with a smirk on his face.

After Rick heard this, all he did was walk over to Cash with his slice of pizza, and grabbed the pepperoni. He began to pull it off, stretching the cheese nearly a foot off the pizza.

"Trust me, you'll want to talk."

Shizuka noticed something else, something was emerging from the black puddle. It was a skull, chipping and cracking away. It had a marking on its forehead that looked like the letter Q. The creepy face had its mouth wide open, and the only sign of any flesh on the skull was its tongue, which it used to lick the chipped away teeth on its jaws. Suddenly, the Skull began to laugh, a deep and unnatural cackle, and the Q and its eyes began to glow a bright red. She looked over at Cash, who seemed to have moisture on his skin. At first, Shizuka thought it was sweat, but once the drop of moisture fell off his nose, she was horrified to see that the drop of moisture was the same color as Cash's skin, and there was were small indents on his skin where the drops of moisture would fall.

"WAIT, I'VE SEEN YOUR STAND." Cash yelled in desperation. "You use it to raid on gang hideouts, we've seen in on security cameras. Please, I'll talk, just don't use that thing on me."

"Alright, why were you shooting up the aquarium?" Rick asked with his mysterious stand ability still seeming to take effect.

"The boss sent me to find Rocko. People were disappearing around there, so he knew someone would check it out. We thought Rocko would know about a drug that was giving people stands."

Everyone stopped what they were doing to look over at Cash. The skull peering from the puddle submerged itself back and the black puddle disappeared.

===To=Be=Continued===


	18. Chapter 18, The Man Comes Around

Name: Harold Land

Stand: Nirvana

Appearance: A fairly old man probably in his 70's, but he's pretty healthy for his age. He wears a green turtleneck sweater and a pair of glasses. He has short grey hair and a fairly strong beard. Wears a pair of normal blue jeans and brown unbranded shoes.

Harold Served in the Vietnam war when he was only 17. He's still haunted by memories of the war to this day.

Ability: Nirvana can create or remove memories when it hears certain key words. If someone says they like something, Nirvana will create a pleasant memory of said thing in the targets head. Likewise, if someone says they dislike something, Nirvana will completely remove any memory or knowledge of that thing existing. The latter should be taken with extreme caution, and if attempted, the target must be as specific as possible. This ability does not work on Harold.

Has an affinity for coins and old sitcoms.

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Everyone was speechless at the thought of a drug that could give someone a stand, yet they just heard it come from Cash's mouth. Shizuka recalled the previous night with Miss Angie, how she claimed that a drug gave her the curse that killed everyone in Mariner's and what drove her to suicide.

"Bullshit." Rick said, "A drug can't give someone a stand, that's impossible."

"No, he's telling the truth." Shizuka said, "I told Rocko about a lady who got drugs from that murdered drug dealer on the news. Well she claimed that a new drug she got from that dealer gave her a stand."

"No, that has to be a coincidence." Rick said, "Getting a stand isn't as easy as popping a pill or snorting something."

"Well, we learned that that same dealer was working for the Ladies of the Road." Rocko said, finishing the last slice of pizza. "Me and Rocko were gonna go check them out."

"Why do you want to talk to the Ladies of the Road?" Harold said, "Even if this was true, that's not our objective. Right now we're trying to find Joseph's killer."

"Here's the thing though," Rocko said, "The drug dealer was murdered the same way as Joseph, both him and Joseph's heart were cut up into equal pieces."

The whole group recalled seeing the news, but they still weren't sure. Could it just be a coincidence? Or do they have a legitimate lead?

"What do you have to say about it?" Rick said to Cash. Cash just looked down, and kept his mouth shut. Rick wasn't having it, and he nailed his foot into Cash's leg, sending him and the chair to the ground. Cash yelled in pain.

"FUCK, you asshole."

"What do you have to say dipshit." Rick said once more

"I can't tell you any more, what I told you should be enough, and you have somewhere to go. My boss has a tight grasp on my neck, and me even being here is a fucking death sentence."

"Well whoever your boss is, he can't find you here, so tell me more." Rick said.

"You dumbass, I don't give a shit what happens to me." Cash said. His eyes became bloodshot, and tears began to run down his face. "My boss knows me better than I do; Where I live, where I work, where I like to eat. He know's where my child is, my beautiful daughter. I only did what I did yesterday because he told me to, and I was scared of what he might do to me or my daughter if I refused. If he finds out I'm telling you this, and he can't find me, who do you think he'll go to next?"

The whole room paused. Nobody knew how to respond, but Harold finally said something. "I feel your plight Cash, but we can't let you leave. But you have my word that nobody besides the people in this room know you're here, or that you told us anything."

Just as Harold said this, Maria came walking down the stairs with a fountain drink in her hand.

"Ah, Maria, perfect timing. We need to you keep an eye on Cash while we all leave. I need to go and do research at home. Rocko, Shizuka, Rick, you three are to go to the Black Key Auto shop. Rick is a regular there, and knows everyone, and has verified that plenty of people from the Ladies of the Road do business there. See what you can find out."

Everyone nodded, and left the room. Left at the hideout was Cash and Maria. Maria went to the fridge and grabbed a frozen hot pocket and put it in the microwave, and once it was done, she sat in a chair on the other side of the room from Cash and began reading a book.

"Can... I get one of those? All I had to eat since yesterday was a slice of pizza." Cash said. Maria simply toned him out and kept reading her book.

"Or not, bitch." Cash said under his breath

Maria put her book on her lap and looked at Cash. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you hear that?" Cash said

"Uh, yeah, I did" Maria replied

"Good."

Maria put her book on the table and walked over to Cash's gun. She picked it up and began to look at it.

Cash whistles "Damn girl, you look pretty hot carrying that thing."

"Don't talk to me like that you son of a bitch," Maria said, pointing the gun at Cash, "Or I'll blow your brains out with your own gun, capiche?"

"Oh come on baby, you don't have the guts to fire that thi-"

Before Cash could finish his sentence, Maria aimed the gun to the stone ceiling and fired a round. She looked at cash and raised her brow. But instead of seeing an intimidated face like she hoped, Cash was smiling.

"Oh, now you've gone and done it missy."

Maria heard a sound above her, a click. She looked above her, and saw one of Cash's Highwaymen pointing its gun at her. She quickly fired another round at the figure, but the torso of another Highwayman sprouted out of the wound made. The Highwayman fired several rounds, not at Maria, but around her. Several Highwaymen emerged from the ground and pointed their guns at Maria.

"I didn't think it would be that easy to get you to fire my gun, it was a risk, but it paid off." Cash said, "Now, lemme tell you whats gonna happen. My Highwaymen are going to come and untie me, I'm going to get the fuck out of here and get my daughter, then we're going to leave this state and start a new life, away from all this gang shit. I don't want to kill you, but if you even move a muscle, your walls are going to get a fresh new coat of paint. Do I make myself clear?"

"Huh, you really played me on this one." Maria said, "But hey, weird question, do you by chance have a knife anywhere on you?"

"Of course I do, now quit talking." Cash said

"Perfect" Maria said.

Suddenly, Cash noticed a face made of porcelain resting on Maria's shoulder. Before he could react, the face opened its eyes, which were full of incredible light. It was very brief, as quick as a camera flash, but after the flash, Cash saw a completely different scene then the one he had set up. On the floor were his Highwaymen with slits on their throats, and another set of cut up rope on the floor. His knife was sitting nicely on the table on the other side of the room, and Maria was twirling Cash's gun on her finger.

===To=Be=Continued===


	19. Chapter 19, Black Magic Woman (Part 1)

This chapter is being written a day early for personal reasons, the next chapter will be Monday

Stand Fact: Rocko had Dirty Harry since a very young age, so young that she thought the true appearance of the stand was too scary, so she always wrapped the stand in bandages. This eventually manifested fully into the stands appearance.

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"I should have guessed you were a stand user." Cash said, looking around at his dead Highwaymen.

Maria continued to spin Cash's gun on her finger, and sat back down to read. About an hour passed before she suddenly heard scratching at the wall behind a desk.

"Damn rats, I told Rick those traps he bought weren't doing shit."

However, when Maria looked behind the desk, all she saw were two Highwaymen, both pointing their guns towards her. She quickly dodged, but a bullet managed to hit her ear.

"Did you really think I only created Highwaymen right in front of you?" Cash said, "I fired multiple shots all across the room too, about 10. Another part of this ability is I can create a Highwayman at a delay, meaning they won't emerge from the bullet hole until time has passed."

Maria fell back, she quickly looked at Cash. Cash noticed the face on Maria's shoulder once more, and saw the flash. After the flash, he saw two Highwaymen dead next to the previously killed units, and yet another pile of cut rope next to him.

"What is this ability?" Cash thought to himself, "Its almost like time moves forward, but she's always in the same spot after she uses it, while everything else moves."

Suddenly, she noticed a tall and very thin figure walk from behind her. The figure had a very long black dress that dragged behind her, and the same porcelain face Cash saw before. Her hair came from behind her mask like face, and was decorated in beads, flowers, and other ornaments, bunched up with ties, resembling dreadlocks. The figure walked over to the tied up Cash, and once it was right in front of him, it held completely still, facing its closed eyes at Cash's.

"Your stand, it has to look into my eyes for it to take effect, is that right?" Cash said

"you're partially correct." Maria said

Before she could finish her thought, an arm of a Highwayman emerged from the side of the fridge, and fired a bullet. Maria's stand was able to side step it, but Cash was looking the other way. The stand looked at the bullet with its shining eyes, and Cash saw the bright reflection of the light.

Suddenly, Maria's head drooped down, and Cash begun to speak.

"One of you, untie me."

One of the Highwaymen emerged from the wall and grabbed Cash's knife, then it went and cut the ropes that were keeping Cash tied to the chair.

"Give me the knife" Cash said

The Highwayman gave Cash the knife, and Cash proceeded to slice the throat of the Highwayman. He then walked over to any Highwayman's arms that were around the room and stabbed the knife into them, killing them. There was one left, and he told it to tie him back to the chair with the rope in the closet. After this, Cash demanded the final Highwayman to slice his own throat. After all of this, Maria's stand closed its eyes, and Maria's head lifted back up.

Once again, Cash was confused, everything in the room changed in the blink of an eye. More dead Highwayman, and yet another set of cut rope appearing out of thin air.

"Are you impressed?" Maria said, "You didn't let me finish. The light coming out of my stand's eyes is what is activating my ability, not direct vision of its eyes. Like I said, you were almost right."

It suddenly dawned on Cash.

"You took control of my body, didn't you? My knife is bloodied over there, and if you tried to cut their throats, they would gun you down in an instant. You took control of my body so they wouldn't shoot me, and cut their throats."

"Yes, with one gaze of the light coming from my stand, my conscious is switched from my body to yours, and your conscious is put into limbo until the end of the effect. The best part is that your stand won't even know the difference." Maria said

"That is my ability, I call it Black Magic Woman." Maria said, "And I don't give a shit what you say you're going to do. As long as you're in the room with me and my stand, you aren't getting out of that chair."

Cash smiled, "I must admit, that is a pretty terrifying stand. But I must asked, why not just keep my mind in stasis 'till your allies get back."

"I can only stay in your body for 1 minute at a time. If I stay in for longer, my mind begins to fry, and your conscious will slowly overpower mine. If that happens, I basically die."

"Interesting." Cash said, "But even if I'm still tied to this chair, my Highwaymen are always active. Your first mistake was firing my gun. Once a single Highwayman is created, its almost impossible to stop them, even without my gun."

"Rocko said your ability doesn't work without you holding your gun, how is it able to work now?" Maria said

Cash simply raised his eyebrow. "Before you guys tied me up, I managed to get a chip that fell off my gun when Shizuka kicked it. I planted that under my skin. It hurt like a bitch, but I always have a part of my gun in my hand. Now, untie me, or die."

After he said this, another arm sprouted out of the desk, and fired randomly in every direction. Black Magic Woman attempted to look into Cash's eyes, but wasn't able to get any light in. Whenever she moved to better look into his eyes, he would close his eyes and look the other way. Maria attempted to run to Cash to open his eyes, but every time she would even get near, a Highwayman's arm would emerge from a bullet hole and fire at her.

"All I have to do is keep my eyes closed, and your ability is useless." Cash said, "Now, are you going to untie me, cause I can easily kill you and have one of my Highwayman untie me, but I'm giving you the option to stay alive, only if you let me go."

"Shit." Maria thought to herself, "He's right. If he keeps his eye closed, I'm basically screwed. Black Magic Woman doesn't have any offensive capabilities, its basically me punching him if I tried to punch Cash with my stand."

There were 5 Highwaymen pointing their guns at Maria. Maria tried something crazy, and she ran for the knife, and ran to a Highwayman to slice its throat, but she tripped and fell.

"Shit, I'm dead, they're going to fire at me."

However, the Highwaymen didn't fire, in fact, they didn't even look to shoot at her. She tried cutting one of the Highwaymen's throats, and while the one she killed fell to the ground, the others kept still, not doing anything. But the second she moved in front of one of them, it fired, hitting her in the leg. She quickly crawled away.

"They don't move, but they will still fire when something comes across their aim. Is this what happens when Cash's vision is gone?"

===To=Be=Continued===


	20. Chapter 20, Black Magic Woman (Part 2)

Name: Maria Maria (or Maria M.)

Stand: Black Magic Woman

Appearance: Maria has long flowing black hair with small round Gauges in her ears. She wears a tie dye sweat shirt and black pants with sneakers.

Stand Ability: With one gaze of the light coming from Black Magic Woman's eyes, Maria's consciousness is switched to the body of whoever gazes at the light, whether that is a reflection or direct eye contact with the stand. The enemies consciousness is put into limbo until the end of the ability. During this time, Maria's body is empty, and her head will slump down, and sometime her whole body will fall to the floor. All the enemy sees is a flash of light, and there are changes around the room, but Maria will always be in the same place.

Has an affinity for progressive rock and "so bad its good" Cheesy sitcoms.

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One of the many mysteries of stands is their habit of crossing the fate of users. Users are drawn to other users, whether they notice it or not. Allow me to tell you a short story of a young boy from Puebla Mexico. He felt like his life wasn't meant for success, but his grandfather told him something he will never forget, "Son, if you want to achieve greatness, you must find opportunity flying through the sky, and you must jump up and grab it."

This young boys name is Samba Pa Ti, and he took his grandfathers words to heart. He decided to move to the states, as he thought the country had opportunity and dreams manifested through the sky like birds, and if he were to achieve greatness, it would be there. It was a breeze for him to get his green card and citizenship, but it was rough at first. The only job he was able to get when he first got into the states was a lowly shovel at a construction company. However, even with this low end job, he didn't forget what his father told him. He worked and worked, he exhausted himself, and he worked his way up. Soon, he was the director of several projects, and then he was a very high member of the company. He became very wealthy, and he was able to live comfortably.

Things took another good turn in his life when he met a very beautiful woman named Nadie de Quien Depende. Almost instantly, he fell in love with the woman, and the woman fell in love with him. They were very soon engaged only 2 months after meeting each other, but looking at them, you would have guessed they knew each other for years and years. After a year of marriage, they soon had a daughter, which the mother wanted to name Maria.

Even with the inspiring story, Samba Pa Ti had his own quirks, as he was very true to his culture and heritage from growing up in Mexico. So much so that Maria didn't learn English until she went to school and had a special class where she was taught the language. Samba understood the need for it, but still demanded that their beautiful mother tongue were the only words to be spoken in his home. Whether this was fair or not, it depends on who you ask, but there's a line between humble pride and forcing beliefs. Maria always loved talking to people, and was a very social person. She met many friends, and eventually even brought a boy home. This man was very handsome, and was very kind and polite to Maria and her parents. Maria hoped that her father and mother would approve of her new love, but Samba was disappointing. He explained to Maria privately that he hoped that she would meet a strong and handsome man of their culture, but this only put Maria over the line. They both argued, and the boy Maria brought home felt bad, as if he was responsible for Samba's narrowness, and he left. Maria was very angry about these things, and said she was running away, far away from home, so her father wouldn't control her life anymore. Samba yelled that he didn't care, and she can leave, but Nadie tried to stop them from fighting, and tried to stop Maria from leaving.

Truthfully, Samba didn't want Maria to leave, but his stubbornness took over, and Maria marched out of the home. This would be the last time they saw their daughter.

Maria wondered the streets, made friends, moved from place to place, had many loves, had many break ups. Eventually, she began to miss home, and went back to the small manor Samba was able to own with his wealth, but the people who answered the door weren't Maria's parents. They informed Maria that they had just moved into the neighborhood. This shocked Maria, as she would have thought that her parents would have told her that they moved. She tried to call her parents, but their phone numbers had changed.

Just like that, her parents were suddenly cut from her life. She tried calling aunts, uncles, cousins, but they all said that they couldn't contact her parents as well.

This was years ago. One night after being kicked out of her friends place because of a bad breakup from her friends brother, she wondered the streets, sad and alone, and sat on a bench and looked at the cars and people walk and drive past her. She noticed a very old man sit next to her. This man must have been over 100 years old, he was easily the oldest human being Maria has ever seen.

"What pains your heart young lady." The old man said in a peaceful British voice.

While Maria may be a very social person, she's very private and stubborn about her feelings and personal affairs. But something about this old man, whether it was his voice full of heart, his slow and peaceful mannerisms, or his kind and understanding smile. She felt like she could trust his man, and she told him what ailed her.

"Do you see all these people, driving by and walking past us?" Maria said, "They all have somewhere to be, someone to meet, something to do. But here I am, sitting on a bench with nothing to me, and nowhere to go."

Maria's voice was cracking and shaky while saying this. While there were no tears, the old man could easily sense great sadness in the young lady's voice.

"All I wanted was control of my life, but now there isn't anything there for me to control. It feels like I'm on a boat that just got wedged into rocks, and I'm shaking the boat desperately to get it free and continue down the river, but it won't budge."

There was a pause, but the old man suddenly spoke.

"Tell me young lady, do you have a strange ability?" He said while opening his hand.

Maria noticed purple thorny vines growing out of the old mans hands, and falling down to the ground. Maria knew her own ability that she somehow got after she left her parents home, but she had no idea that other people had abilities like this too. She told the old man that she did have an ability, and the old man replied.

"Please, come with me. I know of a place and a group of people that you will feel at home with, and they will help you find a purpose."

After a moment, tears began to finally run down her face, and she nodded. She followed the old man to a group of people who introduced themselves as the Night Watch, and Maria never looked back. She soon legally changed her last name to Maria to forever cut that painful tie in her life.

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Maria was in trouble. More and more Highwaymen and arms grew out of the walls, and set their aim. She didn't move a muscle, and she couldn't fight back without getting gunned down.

"Is this how your stand behaves when your eyes are closed?" Maria said

"Ah, so you noticed that, the Highwaymen turn into a sort of motion triggered turret when I close my eyes, it helps when I fall asleep and need someone to watch my back." Cash replied.

Black Magic Woman was still right in front of Cash's face, and her eyes were shining bright and fantastic light at Cash's face, but with his eyes closed, this was fruitless. Maria wanted to test the waters, so she slowly grabbed a quarter from her pocket, and threw it towards Cash. Almost instantly, all of the Highwaymen turned and shot at the quarter, turning it to nothing before it could even touch Cash.

However, an Idea hatched into Maria's head. She noticed that all of the Highwaymen still faced where the quarter was, and they would not move from that spot. She took a very slow step, but almost instantly, all of the Highwaymen faced her, but they didn't fire yet.

"Uh oh, I wouldn't do that missy. If you wanna walk towards me to untie me, I'll make sure my Highwaymen don't fire at you. But you must say it first, that you will untie me." Cash said

"Oh, don't worry, I know your Highwaymen were gonna face me." Maria replied

Suddenly, Black Magic Woman wrapped its hands around Cash's head and began to peel open his eye lids. Eventually, It was able to open one of Cash's eyes, and Cash saw the light. Suddenly, all of the Highwaymen were dead, and yet another cut piece of rope was on the floor. Maria had successfully used her ability. The Highwaymen tried to fire at Black Magic Woman, but Maria was able to draw her stand back before the bullets could hit her, sending tons of bullets into Cash. Thankfully, none of these shots were fatal.

"I'm tired of your shit, Cash, can you just please wait patiently for them to come back. I'm sure they can talk about releasing you." Maria said

"This isn't about releasing me missy, I told you before." Cash said, "I need to see my daughter. You still underestimate me. When I was trying to trick you to fire my gun, I had everything covered."

Suddenly, Maria noticed arms sprouting from the holes in Cash's body. "I let my Highwaymen fire bullets into me. This hurts like shit, but it works in case someone decides to use my own weapon against me."

Maria realized what he meant, there were already bullets inside of Cash, and his ability was able to work with these bullets. With his eyes wide open, the arms fired at Maria, sending her to the floor. She was wounded, but all of the shots missed her vitals. The two arms on Cash's knees aimed at the rope and fired, finally setting Cash free.

"I didn't lie about your ability." Cash said while standing up, "Its a terrifying ability, and if you weren't so quick on your impulses, you would have surely beaten me."

Cash's eyes were closed again, and he was navigating the room on memory alone. Maria tried to throw a punch with Black Magic Woman, but the arms on Cash quickly fired 4 rounds into the stands arm, and wounding Maria even further.

"I'll be taking my leave now. Good day." Cash said, as he walked up the stairs. He fired many rounds into the stone door usually left by Rick, and he was soon gone from Maria's view.

===To=Be=Continued===


	21. Chapter 21, The Black Key Auto Shop

Stand Fact: Mollusk is able to understand what aquatic creatures are saying or thinking, and tell it to Daymon Ween, and vice versa. This essentially gives Daymon the ability to talk to fish and sea creatures.

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"Shit"

Rick has just gotten of the phone, "Maria said Cash got away. Should we turn around and try and catch that bastard?" he said

"No, we're already almost there." Rocko said, "If Cash becomes and issue, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

They were on a long and crowded Highway going to Albany, which is where the Black Key Auto Shop is. Rick is taking the wheel of his beloved 73 black Mustang with a matte finish. Bizarrely, Rick insisted that Rocko would sit in the back behind him, and Shizuka sits in the middle seat. Shizuka tried asking Rick why that was the case, and Rocko explained that Rick doesn't like having anybody sit on the Right side of his car. Shizuka thought this was odd, but she followed along. Although it was cramped, Rocko and Shizuka sharing stories and gossip was enough to distract her from that discomfort.

"Oh no." Shizuka said, pointing forward down the highway

Down the highway was almost a kilometer of traffic. It looks like that a semi tipped over, and was blocking the whole street. This was about a hundred meters away, but nobody seemed worried. In fact, Rocko smiled and looked at Shizuka.

"Shizuka, I'm going to need you to turn us and the car invisible." Rick said

"But, we'll be blown apart, my invisibility won't make us go through all that traffic." Shizuka replied

"I didn't ask for your input, just turn us and the car invisible Shizuka"

Nervously, Shizuka did what she was told, but Rick wasn't slowing down at all, but rather he was accelerating. Shizuka jumped in horror when she heard a loud deep scream that turned into a laugh. She noticed something, the same face from before peering back at her from the passenger seat. It was dark, so all she could make out was its glowing red eyes and the glowing Q on its forehead.

"RICK STOP" Shizuka cried

Shizuka closed her eyes and cowered back when Rick drove full speed into the back of the first car.

"YYYYYYEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH" Shizuka heard from Rick's stand in the passenger seat.

That's all Shizuka heard, however, she didn't hear metal flying off cars, or screams of pain. She opened her eyes, but only to see something she didn't expect to ever see. The car was going through the other cars, but it was almost like Rick's car was phasing through every car. Shizuka could even see another child in the back seat of one of the cars phase through her. Eventually, they made it through the traffic, and Rick's stand disappeared.

"Alright, you can make us visible again Shizuka, last time I did that, I ended up on one of those shitty "Top 10 mystery" Videos on youtube."

Shizuka made the car and themselves visible again, but she was shaking. She surely thought her life was about to end, but they phased through all that traffic without trouble. Rocko noticed this fear in Shizuka, and was laughing.

"What is Rick's ability?" Shizuka thought to herself, "How is it able to make us go through all that traffic without collision."

"Well, that might have been an issue, using my stand for that" Rick said, "Now I only have 4 minutes left today, and it takes 5 minutes away from my time automatically when I pull it out."

"What is your stand?" Shizuka asked, "What is it's ability?"

"Trust me Shizuka," Rocko said, "It'll be worth the wait when you see what it can do when Rick is serious. It's what we do for every new member."

"You'll see it again tonight, once we burst into that Auto Shop." Rick said "It's 11, so we'll have to wait another hour till it hits midnight, when my Abilities timer resets."

"Rick can only use his stand for a total of an hour a day, and whenever he even pulls out his stand, it automatically takes away 5 minutes." Rocko added

They drove for another half hour, until finally reaching the Black Key Auto Shop. The smell of rubber and exhaust filled the air, and was almost choking to Shizuka and Rocko, but Rick felt at home. They knocked on the large metal curtain that separated them from the inside of the shop. It opened, but the people inside were less then friendly, all holding guns and any weapon they could fine towards them.

"Hmm, this isn't a way to greet a regular." Rick said

"Oh cut that shit Rick, we knew you were coming" Said a voice very familiar to Rocko

Among all of the men aiming their guns at the three was a man with long ginger hair and a very thick beard, wearing a worn plaid jacket and a pair of jeans with boots. When he made his way to the three, however, his attention quickly turned from Rick to Rocko.

"R-Rocko?" He said with a shaky voice

Rocko looked down, rubbed his eyes, and sighed

"Hey Pat."

"What... what are you doing here?" the man said

"This is Patrick Auerbach" Rocko said, "An old... Friend of mine."

Auerbach seemed very hurt by this statement, as after she said that, he looked down with a look of sadness on his face. Auerbach had a very calm and silent way of speaking, almost to the point of mumbling.

"What the hell are you thinking Rick? Raiding us, I thought you were cool, we done so much business together."

"Look Pat, I know we have history." Rick said, "But Someone died associated with your gang, and it was all caused by a drug giving people stands. I know you know what stands are."

"Look man, I don't know shit about what happened with that guy. However, I am going to take you guys in."

"I don't think so." Rick said, kicking the pulley that held up the metal curtain. He intended for Rocko and Shizuka to follow him, but they weren't quick enough. Soon, they were separated from Rick, alone in this new territory with a potential stand user.

"Whatever, Rick can be taken care of the next time he gets here. You two, come with me." Auerbach said.

The two girls followed Auerbach to his office. It was a cramped office, littered with receipts and papers with orders for car parts written on them. It was hard to make out any writing however, as Auerbach's handwriting was very poor and messy. Shizuka noticed him grab a framed picture off the desk, and put it into a drawer in his desk. Shizuka was able to get a brief glimpse of the picture. It was Rocko, holding tight in her arms what seemed to be a younger Auerbach. She also noticed a tattoo of a pair of lips on his wrist.

"Now, I'm very busy, so I'll deal with you two later, just stay in my office." Auerbach said "I'm going to warn you though, I'll be locking the door, do NOT touch the doorknob."

After he said this, he left the office, and sure enough, they heard the sound of his key locking the door, but also a snap of his fingers after he locked it. Rocko checked the time, it was 11:35pm, so Rick's ability should be resetting in 25 minutes.

"Is... there something here between you and this guy?" Shizuka asked

Rocko paused for a bit before speaking

"I had a thing with him back when I was like 17. We broke up like a year ago, when I was 20." Rocko replied

There was a bit of an awkward pause before Shizuka finally spoke

"I can turn both of us invisible and we can sneak out of here, does your ability work on the doorknob?" Shizuka asked

"Of course, lets get out of here." Rocko said

After Shizuka turned them both invisible, Rocko used Dirty Harry to reach for the doorknob and trigger its ability to unlock the door, but something else happened. Rocko's hand instantly blistered and burned, and she quickly pulled her hand back. She quickly slammed her hand on the desk, but as soon as she did that, the papers on top of the desk started to catch fire and burn. Shizuka quickly used Achtung Baby to make a small hole on the wall so she can see through it, and saw Auerbach looking at the doorknob. He quickly noticed Shizuka, and he snapped his fingers with his thumb facing up. Shizuka noticed a small flame coming out of his thumb, and watched as he burned the wall with it. After this, Shizuka's hands began to burn and blister while she was leaned against the wall, and she quickly fell back.

"Uh, Shizuka?" Rocko said

Shizuka looked at her direction, and saw that the ashes of the papers were falling onto the floor, and the carpet was burning hot, melting anything plastic that would be on the floor.

"WE NEED TO CLIMB UP!" Rocko yelled.

===To=Be=Continued===


	22. Chapter 22, The Flame

Stand Fact: Although Cash has the ultimate say on their behavior, the Highwaymen are able to act and behave on their own accord if they are allowed to. They are fairly clever too, able to come up with strategies and tactics among each other without Cash's input.

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"Hey baby"

"Yeah? What's up?"

"You wanna see a new trick I taught myself? With my stand?"

"Yeah, show me."

A young Rocko was laying in bed next to a young Auerbach, who lights a cigarette that Rocko is holding to her mouth. She takes a deep inhale, and lets out a large cloud of smoke from her mouth. After she does this, Dirty Harry appears and swipes its hand through the cloud, and the cloud densed back up and returns to Rocko's mouth.

"Huh, thats pretty cool." Auerbach said, "But check this out."

Auerbach grabs a cigarette and puts it to his mouth. He grabs a cup of water that was sitting on his nightstand, and holds it in one hand. He snaps his fingers with his other, and uses the flame that is coming out of his thumb to light the cigarette. He inhales, and exhales the smoke onto the bottom of the cup. Instantly, the liquid inside the cup begins to boil and evaporate.

"Not as cool as my trick, huh?" Auerbach said with a smug smile on his face

"Shut up." Rocko replied with a smile, pushing her hand into Auerbach's face

"Hey Rocko."

"Yeah?"

"What's going on?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"LOOK AROUND US, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?"

Rocko suddenly snapped back, and saw Shizuka with a panicked look on her face. Although there wasn't anything on fire, Rocko can feel an intense heat, and anything plastic was melting. They were both standing on top of a few chairs that they stacked onto a table, and it seemed to help against whatever Auerbach's ability was.

"Shit, sorry. How long was I out?" Rocko asked

"5 Fucking minutes." Shizuka said, "But nothing has changed, so I think us getting on these chairs helped us."

"It won't help for long." Rocko said, "Auerbach's stand is called The Flame, and it turns basically anything that little flame that came out of his hand touches into a conductor, and that heat will spread through anything those conductors touch. It was a very stupid idea for me to touch the desk after touching the doorknob that he used his ability on."

"Well what do we do?" Shizuka asked

"Uh, I might have something." Rocko said

After saying this, Rocko grabbed a bottle that was sitting on the table, and lunged it at the ceiling panels. One of them snapped, and they both fell down in half. Dirty Harry quickly flew out and touched both of the halves.

"Quick, jump on those panels" Rocko yelled

Rocko and Shizuka both jumped on the two halves of the ceiling panel, and to Shizuka's amazement, the panels floated in the air.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Rocko said, "Since we're standing on top of these panels, we're applying equal pressure against Dirty Harry's ability, causing them to float in the air."

"What happens if those papers' ashes fly through the air and transfer that heat into the rest of the room?" Shizuka asked

"I don't know, but we've only have 20 minutes until Rick's stand's timer resets. If we can just hold on until then, we should be fine."

The two kept floating in the air on top of the ceiling panels. Meanwhile on the other side of the wall however, Auerbach was sitting against the wall with horror painted on his sweaty face.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god" Auerbach repeated to himself

"I warned them about the door. I told them not to touch the doorknob. Why the fuck did I even heat up the doorknob? Fuck, Fuck, Fuck."

Auerbach quickly stood up and grabbed the key from his pocket. "I need to get them out of there, they're going to die."

He attempted to unlock the door with his key, but the key melted quickly inside the heated doorknob. He tried kicking the door in, but it only transferred the heat to his shoe, burning his foot.

"FUCK, what am I going to do, they're going to die, and its all my fault, SHIT" Auerbach said, pulling his shoe off his foot.

"Did someone try and break the door down just now?" Shizuka asked

"I don't know, is it Rick?" Rocko replied

The papers on the desk kept burning, and the ashes flew into the air, landing on the table they were just at, and the rubber on the chairs sitting on the table begin to melt.

They hear another kick at the door. After a moment, they hear another bang, then another, then another. Eventually, cracks started to form on the door. With one final bang on the door, it smashes in half and falls to the floor. To both of their surprise, they see a bloodied and burnt Auerbach, his knuckles sizzling and still dripping with blood.

"Get out, hurry, I can't stop this ability once it starts." Auerbach yelled.

Before either of the girls could move though, one of the employees approached Auerbach with a wrench in his hand, and took a swing at the side of Auerbach's head.

"Helping the intruders? What is Caroline going to think about this Pat?" The employee said

"To hell with Caroline." Auerbach yelled, picking up his heated shoe. His fingers burnt when he picked it up, but he managed to swing it at the employee's face, burning his face like a hot iron. The rest of the employees began to fire their weapons at the balcony that lead to Auerbach's office. A bullet hit his shoulder, and he fell to the ground. He grabbed his other heated shoe, and threw it at a car. The car heated up, and eventually the gas boiled and ignited, blowing fire at nearby gas cans. This created a chain reaction, and eventually the whole shop was on fire.

Shizuka and Rocko quickly ran towards the door, their feet burning after touching the heated up carpet.

"Shit, we have to get out of here." Rocko yelled, "Shizuka, help me carry Pat."

"Why are we carrying him out?" Shizuka asked, "He just trapped us in a room with his stand, and nearly killed us."

"Fuck sake, don't ask questions and just do what I say, please." Rocko yelled.

Shizuka nodded and put one of Auerbach's arms over her shoulder. The Auto Shop was still blazing, and without a sprinkler system, the fire and Auerbach's ability was able to freely spread through the shop, and it soon became impossible to move around. While the employee's were having trouble moving around, they kept firing at the balcony.

"I'm sorry." Auerbach said, "I hoped that I would see you again Rocko, but not like this."

Suddenly, the firing stopped. Droplets began to fall from the ceiling, but there were no sprinkler system in the shop. Each drop would fall onto anything on fire, or anything affected by The Flame. Eventually, all the fire was put out, and nobody felt any more heat in the shop. Shizuka stood up to look over the balcony, and saw that everyone was facing towards the metal curtain. She noticed that the Metal curtain was melting away. At first, she thought that this was The Flame heating up the door and causing the metal to melt, but eventually a hole appeared on the curtain, and saw Rick Homme casually walk through the hole in the curtain.

Rick lets out a whistle "Oh, would you look at the time. It's High Noon."

Everyone was quiet, and looked at Rick. They all had their weapons pointed at him, but Rick wasn't faltering. Shizuka looked at a clock on a wall, and saw that it was exactly midnight.

"Now, since I'm sure none of you have any clue what hell is about to fall on you, I'll give you a chance to make things... not go that route." Rick said "I want one god damn person to tell me about a drug dealer who got chopped up into 10 pieces selling a new "miracle" drug."

Nobody said a thing. Truthfully Auerbach wanted to talk, but his body and head was in so much pain, he couldn't utter a word. Suddenly, a man ran towards Rick with a wrench in his hand and swung it at Rick's head. However, all the wrench did was effortlessly pass through Rick's head, very similar to how Rick's car phased through the traffic earlier that night.

Suddenly, Shizuka noticed something peering in from the hole in the metal curtain, and it walked into the room. It was Rick's stand, but this was the first time Shizuka was able to get a full look at it. It was terrifyingly tall, almost 3 times as tall as Rick himself. When Shizuka saw its face earlier that day, she thought it was just a human skull for a head, but this skull wasn't like anything she has every seen. It had very long teeth, with some teeth being randomly sharper than the others, and the whole skull topped off with small horns on its forehead. It's skeletal face was cracking and chipping away, but whenever a piece fell off, it would almost regenerate as if nothing had happened. As the stand licked its teeth with its tongue, its tongue would get cut, and Shizuka saw several cuts on this... things tongue. It's body was wrapped in a very dark black cloak, and its body would bend and twist leading up to it's head.

The employee with the wrench kept trying to swing at Rick, but every swing would be the same, passing through Rick without any sign of pain from him. Suddenly, Rick's stand grabbed the employee by his throat. Non stand users cannot see other stands, so the employee has no idea what is going on. As soon as his stand raised the employee to face level, Rick smiled

"My turn." He said

As he said this, Rick's stand licked the employee's face with its dark red tongue, and the employee's face instantly melted, faster than an ice cube on a stove. It melted past his skull, and to his brain, and his body went limp not even a second after the stand licked his face. This wasn't the worst of it, however, as when the stand noticed that the person was dead, he threw his corpse at a car parked at the side of the shop's interior. As soon as the employee's body hit the windshield, his whole body erupted in liquid, splashing everywhere like a boulder falling into a lake.

"Do you see it Shizuka? I know you've been wanting to see it all night." Rick said

With the same look of horror on her face, Shizuka slowly nodded

"Well, here it is Shizuka. This is my stand...,"

"QUEEN OF THE STONE AGE"

===To=Be=Continued===


	23. Chapter 23, Rick Homme's Hour

Name: Patrick Auerbach

Stand: The Flame

Appearance: Long ginger hair and thick bushy beard. Wears a worn plaid flannel and blue worn jeans with plain sneakers. Has the tattoo of a pair of lips on his arm, which is a symbol of the Ladies of the Road.

Stand Ability: Can heat up anything with a flame he summons by snapping. Once this object is heated up, it will heat up anything it touches to the same temperature, and the effect continues with the next heated up object. The only way to stop this ability is to manually cool it down.

Has an affinity for Vinyl Records and Blues rock.

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Allow me to take a second of your time and take a look at the past of Rick Homme. He was born in Manhattan New York in December of 1986. He lived a life of poverty, and his parents were only able to afford the bare minimum; food, school for Rick, and a roof to sleep under. Even with this major hold back, Rick had a happy childhood, and a very healthy relationship with his parents. Eventually, he moved out and got a job, and was able to afford college. People would often joke about his fashion, as he loved the look of the 70s, dressing in leather jackets and slicking his hair back with grease. Even with this, Rick was able to gain a lot of friends, and even a girl named Janis had taking a liking to him. They went on a few dates, and eventually they wed. They had a beautiful daughter named Grace, and they lived happily and comfortably.

However, as we discussed with Maria's father, every man has a quirk, something that sticks to them, and cannot be removed easily. Rick Homme had terrible anger issues ever since he was a very small child. No therapist or counselor could find out what it was, but Rick would always just randomly go into a fit of pure rage. This was off putting, as any person would say that Rick was the kindest and most trustworthy person they've met, but they also say that he turns into something that isn't a man, but a monster. Oddly enough, Rick only goes into a fit of rage for an hour a day. Janis jokingly called it "Rick's Hour." On top of this, Janis's family understandably worried for her, but she always assured them that even during his fits of rage, Rick would never lay a finger on her or their daughter. He would often take out his rage on his beloved mustang, but this would prove to be a good choice, as he loved fixing up cars. It was his one and only passion, and he held it close to him.

One night, Rick took his family out to dinner in Brooklyn. They enjoyed a nice dinner, and they were driving back to Manhattan. However, something was bugging Rick. Whether it was the traffic, or the service at the restaurant, nobody could tell, but Rick was starting to descend into his daily hour. Janis tried to calm him down, telling him to just hold on, but nothing would calm him down. His hand was twitching, his eye was blinking on its own. This happened for 10 minutes before they entered the freeway, and Rick failed to notice the stoplight. Rick drove right in the way of a speeding semi truck. The truck quickly collided with the right side of Rick's car, which held his wife in the passenger seat, and his daughter sitting in a booster seat.

Rick stayed in the hospital for the full 5 days Janis and Grace were admitted. He didn't eat, he didn't sleep, he didn't drink anything, and he didn't leave the chair right next to their room. The doctors and nurses begged him to get nutrition or some sleep, but every time, he would always say that if they didn't have anything to say about his wife or daughter, then to leave him alone.

On the fifth day, the doctor came to him and said that there was nothing they could do. Rick, full of guilt and grief, picked up the chair he was sitting on and threw it at the reception desk, then he walked out of the hospital. Rick didn't face any manslaughter charges because it was found out that the light had a malfunction, and was showing a green light when it should have been red. This didn't matter however, as Rick wasn't paying attention to the sign or the road.

Rick never fell in love again, and he soon grew distant from his friends. He would always go to the bar and attempt to drink his thoughts away, or at least numb the pain of killing his family. It was one night that stopped him from possibly doing something horrible to himself, the night where he crossed paths with a peculiar elderly man. The old man saw the mess Rick was at the time, and told him a story. He told him how he once had an ally who was like a brother to him, but was crushed under a pillar of stone, right before his eyes. People come and go, he said, and all we can do is move on from our mistakes. I could have prevented my friends death, he said, but that was over 80 years ago. The old man invited Rick to join a group he put together, and maybe he can find some self retribution in doing good. Rick accepted, and though he will always miss his family, he found peace.

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As soon as Rick Homme announced his stand, all hell broke loose.

"You might want to look away Shizuka, this is going to get nasty." Rocko said

Another man came and attempted to swing a wrench at Rick, but before he could even reach him, his legs resolved into liquid, and he fell on the ground as half a torso. Rick stepped on his head, and his head collapsed and splashed as if Rick stepped on a water balloon.

Everyone was firing their guns at Rick, but every bullet would just fly cleanly through his body, and there would be no sign of injury on Rick. One man tried to run up and punch him with brass knuckles, but this time was different. As soon as his fist was about to make contact, it liquefied, and flew everywhere past Rick. After this, Queen of the Stone Age quickly threw a punch, sending the man with the knuckles to the floor. With his remaining hand, he quickly patted his face to check for injury, but as soon as he removed his hand, the skin on his face stuck to his hand and stretched off his face like melted cheese. After this, Rick kicked a bucket of oil at the knuckled man, but Shizuka noticed something new, another addition to Queen of the Stone Age's mysterious ability. The oil looked like it was solid as it was flying through the air, like it turned to ice as soon as Rick kicked the bucket. The bucket of solid oil hit the knuckled mans face, and his head splashed and flew everywhere, once again, like a balloon full of water.

There were three armed men left, and one of them cried and tried to make a break for the metal curtain to escape. As soon as he passed Rick and Queen of the Stone Age, the stand quickly turned its head towards the running man. It's head cracked and twisted, and its jaws opened to such an inhuman length, it could have easily swallowed a person whole. Queen of the Stone Age then quickly stretched its body and bit down the middle of the running man, liquefying almost his entire body, except for his chest, arms, and head. The man cried and begged for mercy, but Queen of the Stone Age instead took a bite off the mans face, and the rest of his body quickly melted into a large puddle on the ground.

One other guy with an automatic rifle began to take fire, sending bullet after bullet at Rick. However, like a broken record, this would prove to be fruitless. Rick's hand suddenly flew from his arm and began to strangle the man. No blood was leaving, and instead, the ends of his arm and hand almost swayed with the wind, and was even transparent to a point. Rick began to walk towards the man with the rifle, and Queen of the Stone Age eerily swayed back and forth as it walked with Rick. When they arrived to the man, Queen of the Stone Age simply put its hand on his face, and clenched its fist, the mans face liquefying and spraying through the stands fingers. The last man tried to run away, but his foot instantly melted as he took his first step, sending him to the floor. Rick approached him, and put his hand to his arm. His hand effortlessly phased into his body, and he pulled out several long red wires from his arm. After noticing the trenches left behind in the mans arm, it became clear that these red wires were actually solidified bloodstreams. Rick quickly took these bloodstreams and jabbed them into the mans heart like a blade. After they entered the mans body, his whole body slowly melted, leaving behind yet another puddle.

The only living people left in the shop was Rick, Shizuka, Rocko, and Auerbach. After the last man melted, Rick and Queen of the Stone Age turned to look at Shizuka

"Matter, Shizuka" Rick said

Shizuka was horrified, and was barely able to respond, but she simply said "What, what do you mean?"

"There are three phases of matter that we can see every day; Solids, Liquids, and Gases. It takes a certain action to move these phases of matter to the next."

Shizuka tried to hold back the urge to vomit after seeing people getting liquefied and torn apart by Rick's terrifying stand.

"My stand, Queen of the Stone Age's, ability is to instantly change an object to another phase of matter, its as easy as a snap. But as I've said before, I can only use this ability for a combined time of an hour a day."

Rick quickly noticed Auerbach trying to walk away, but he melted the floor underneath him, making it slippery and causing him to fall.

"NO RICK." Rocko yelled, "Please don't kill him."

"Please, I can tell you where you want to go next." Auerbach muttered, "If you're wondering about the drug, I truly don't know what that is all about, and I didn't know they were able to give people stands, but if you want to learn more about what they're dealing, Caroline is your best bet."

"Caroline?" Shizuka replied

"She's the boss. Trust me, I didn't want things to end up this way. I swear to god I was going to tell you everything in my office, but you had to turn the god damn knob."

"Then why did you heat up the knob?" Rocko replied

"Because I didn't want you guys to leave, and I even warned you." Auerbach replied

There was a pause among everyone before Shizuka finally spoke.

"Where can we find Caroline?" She asked

"I don't know where the building is at specifically, but her quarters are somewhere in the Bronx."

Shizuka and Rick nodded, and began to stand up and walk to the car, but Rocko stayed behind for a bit. She noticed tears running down Auerbachs face, and him breathing heavily. Rocko sighed

"Why are you crying Pat." She said

After a pause, Auerbach spoke. "I miss you so much Rocko. I still love you."

"I know you do Pat." Rocko replied, "And I wish I didn't feel the same way."

After saying this, Rocko stood up, wiped the tears out of her eyes, and walked away, leaving Auerbach alone with the melted remains of his employees.

===To=Be=Continued===


	24. Chapter 24, Like Old Times

Name: Rick Homme

Stand: Queen of the Stone Age

Appearance: A fairly muscular man with broad shoulders sporting either a plain leather jacket or one of his Letterman jackets from college. His hair is slick and greased, making him look like a typical 70's greaser thug. Wears blue jeans and a pair of black men's boots.

Stand Ability: Queen of the Stone Age is able to change the phase of matter of anything, whether that be a person, water, or even the floor or ceiling. These phases can either be a solid, liquid, or gas. This ability can only be used for a combined time of an hour a day, and pulling out the stand automatically takes away 5 minutes from the timer.

Has an affinity for the 70's and cars.

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It was a long drive back to Manhattan, and it was almost 12:40 am. Shizuka was tired, Rocko was a bit shaken up from seeing his ex, and Rick was disappointed.

"Well, that just took us to a dead end." Rick said

"What makes you say that?" Rocko asked

"We know where we can find out about the drug, but we didn't get shit on who could have possibly killed that drug dealer and Joseph."

Suddenly, something dawned on Shizuka

"Hey, I just thought of something." Shizuka said, and everyone turned their attention to her. "I think we're going at this the wrong way. Sure, we found more info about the drug, but what's been bugging me is why would another member of the Ladies of the Road kill their own dealer?"

"Well, maybe he wasn't meeting his quota or something?" Rick suggested

"Maybe, but think about it; what kind of thing would drive someone to kill a drug dealer?" Shizuka said, "What I'm thinking is that maybe that dealer refused to sell the drug to someone, and that person killed the dealer on the spot."

Everyone lit up when Shizuka suggested this. Rick raised an eyebrow, and Rocko's eyes widened as she began to think.

"Why would a drug dealer refuse to sell drugs to someone?" Rocko said, "Even if it was a cop, why would the cop viciously murder the dealer like that?"

"Maybe it wasn't a cop, but a member of a rival gang?" Shizuka suggested

Rocko and Rick both lit up once more

"The only rivals the Ladies have are the Larks in Aspic." Rocko said

"Hm" Rick huffed. "Good thinking Shizuka. This takes us full circle. Someone from the Lark's In Aspic must have killed the dealer. This revelation could have been useful earlier, but whatever. Tonight was fun."

"Sure, fun." Rocko said

"Would the Caroline lead still be useful?" Shizuka asked

"Well, I'm sure we could learn more about the drug, but right now we're trying to find Joseph's killer." Rocko said

"But still, that drug could be dangerous. If it was giving people stands, that could lead to disaster." Rick said

"Don't worry, someone actually came to me interested in investigating that." Rocko said

"Who?" Rick asked

"Shizuka's step brother, Josuke." Rocko replied

Shizuka's eyes widened. They continued to drive through the dark and empty streets, and eventually made it to Manhattan. They all went home, and slept, for they had a lot of work to do tomorrow.

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THE NEXT MORNING

"When will he get here Josuke? We've been waiting for hours now."

Josuke and Okuyasu were waiting in Josuke's hotel room. Since they couldn't afford to stay in the Queen's motel any longer, they decided to stay at the Neutral Milk Hotel. It was a single story complex of motel rooms going across a large parking lot. It was a bit gross and worn down, but they just needed a place to sleep, since they expected they would be busy investigating the stand giving drug most of the time they were there.

"Patience Okuyasu." Josuke said, "I told the Speedwagon foundation to get him the fastest flight to New York. He should be here any second now."

"How the hell were you able to get a jet from Speedwagon?" Okuyasu asked very loudly, as he usually does

"Jotaro's one good friend to have." Josuke said

"Wait, so Jotaro's going to help us too?"

"I told him about all of this, but he said he had work obligations back in Florida. He'll be back in a week though."

After Josuke said this, they both heard a knock at the door. Okuyasu went over to look through the peephole, and he began to smile from ear to ear.

"JOSUKE, I heard a knock, but there's nobody outside the door."

Josuke smiled as he walked towards the door.

"Now Okuyasu, maybe its a tiny little maid." He said with a big smile on his face

They both began to laugh, and they heard another knock and a voice from the other side of the door

"Come on guys, you do this every time I knock on a door with a peep hole."

"Sorry kid, Halloween isn't for another few weeks, you're a bit early." Okuyasu said

Okuyasu and Josuke both began to explode in laughter

"Maybe this hotel is haunted, and a ghost is knocking on our door." Josuke said while trying to form a sentence through laughter.

"This was funny the first time, but it's just annoying now, you two." The voice on the other side of the door said

Okuyasu grabbed a measuring tape and put it from the floor to halfway up the door. Josuke began to wheeze with laughter, and Okuyasu was barely able to keep standing. Suddenly, Okuyasu felt the weight of an elephant fall on top of him, and he collapsed to the floor, and breaking the floor boards. Although he was surprised, Okuyasu started laughing again.

"Josuke, let that son of a bitch in." Okuyasu said with laughter.

Josuke approached the door an opened it, and saw Koichi Hirose standing on the other side. He was wearing formal clothing, the typical working uniform of a Japanese office employee. His hair was cut very nice and formal.

"God damn, how long has it been?" Josuke asked

"Too long." Koichi said, giving Josuke a fist bump like a bro.

"What are you all dressed up nice for?" Okuyasu said while still on the ground.

"They wouldn't let me ride their plane without dressing all formal. Sorry I'm late."

"It's no problem at all, we're just glad you're here. It's gonna be like old times." Josuke said

"What about your job and wife? Are they okay with you coming to america?" Okuyasu said, again, still on the floor.

"Well I requested a month off from work, I've been saving up those sick days. Yukako was a little bit upset that I was coming here, but I couldn't pass up a chance to have one of our little adventures." Koichi said

"Yeah, the last time we did something like this was back in 1999." Josuke said

Koichi grabbed some clothes and changed in the bathroom. He was wearing much more informal clothes, a plain t shirt with sweat pants and a green cotton jacket with small stars going along the bottom near the pockets. His hair wasn't all nice, but instead was slightly spiky and messy.

"I still can't believe what you told me over the phone." Koichi said, "There's really a drug going around that's giving people stands?"

===To=Be=Continued===


	25. Chapter 25, The Hot Spot

Stand Fact: Nirvana has zero defensive or offensive capabilities. It's an incredibly weak stand in a fight, but it can be used to warp someone's mind when they don't know the stands ability. Because of this, Harold Land will usually wait somewhere behind the scenes and let the target talk casually.

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Josuke explained everything to Koichi before hand on the phone; the stand giving drug, the Ladies of the Road, and the unfortunate suicide of Miss Angie. Koichi went through the same path of emotion that Josuke and Okuyasu went through when hearing about these things, from denial to suspicion, and finally acceptance. This all lined up too well to be a coincidence, the Ladies of the Road were dealing drugs that were giving people stands, it was undeniable now.

"How are we going to find them, let alone question one of the Ladies about the drug?" Koichi asked

"This woman I saved, Rocko, told me that the Ladies base of operations are in the Bronx, but they apparently have dealers all over the place." Josuke explained, "We're just going to have to go to the shadiest looking place we can find, and check out every person we see until we find a lady of the road."

"WHAT?" Okuyasu yelled, "THAT WILL TAKE AGES."

"Yeah, it'll take some time." Josuke said, "But good thing I'm a lucky man."

When he said this, both Koichi and Okuyasu tilted their heads, looking at Josuke, puzzled.

"Rocko also told me a small alley that used to be a very crowded place for drug dealing, and the Ladies would often also be there to deal their drugs, but it has since been abandoned." Josuke said, "But heres the odd part, apparently, someone is always there, pretty much lives there."

"How does this Rocko lady know about all of this?" Koichi said

"No idea, but it's the only thing we have to go off of at the moment." Josuke replied

"Where is this place?" Okuyasu said, picking dead skin off of his thumb

"That's the best part, its only a few blocks away." Josuke said

All three of them nodded and made their way out of the hotel. While walking down the street, they looked around nervously, making sure not a single person passed them without being checked for tattoos. It would be about 20 minutes before they would make it to the "hot spot", so they needed to be careful and thorough.

"Act 1" Koichi suddenly said to himself.

Before Josuke and Okuyasu knew it, a turtle like creature with thin arms, a beak, 2 wheels on its shell, and a long pointed tail curved around Koichi. Its shell resembled a German WW1 soldier helmet, and it had 2 slotted eyes. It quickly crawled up Koichi's back and used his shoulder to make a mighty leap in the air. It was soon flying through the air, almost out of sight.

"Good thinking Koichi." Josuke said, "If we see anybody running away or noticing Echoes, we'll see it."

The three kept walking, Josuke and Okuyasu keeping a watchful eye of anybody leaving or entering alley ways, and Koichi using Echoes Act 1 to scope out nearby alleys from above. They weren't getting any luck, if anything, they were just getting angry looks from people who didn't appreciate them looking them down every time they passed the odd trio.

About 10 minutes have passed, and they were about half way to the "Hot Spot". They couldn't find anybody suspicious, and the buildings were starting to get too tall for Echoes Act 1 to fly above, making scouting from above more difficult for Koichi. Echoes Act 1's range was larger than the other acts, being 50 feet, but the tall skyscrapers of New York dwarfed that range. However, Echoes Act 1 can still be useful for seeing deeper into alleys that could be blocked from the ground view by boxes or trash units.

The trio kept walking, with the tension growing even higher. They closer they got to the "Hot Spot", they thought, the higher their chances of seeing the man who apparently lives there.

"Do you see anything yet Koichi?" Josuke whispered

"Nothing yet, but I'm starting to get nervous." Koichi replied, "There are a ton of people in each alley, probably doing their own deals, but I don't see the Tattoo anywhere on them. Act 1 will even go and look at them closely, but I see nothing."

"Shit." Okuyasu said, the tension overwhelming him.

Suddenly, Koichi's eyes widened, and his teeth clenched

"JOSUKE, OKUYASU." Koichi yelled, "This alley, the one we're about to approach."

"What is it?" Josuke said, sweat starting to form on his face

"There's dead bodies, everywhere." Koichi said, "It's closed off by a gate, about 40 feet ahead of us."

Josuke and Okuyasu were both shocked. As Koichi was describing this, he saw a man walking out of a door in the alley through Echoes' eyes. The man noticed Echoes, and he tried to run, but Koichi had things covered. Echoes Act 1 suddenly pulled an object out of his tail, but this wasn't any object. It was words, onomatopoeia. The stand reeled the words back and threw with a mighty aim, and it nailed the back of the running mans back.

When the words hit, it made a constant dinging sound, almost like a radar, one that Josuke and Okuyasu were able to hear.

DING DING DING

They all began to run, and when they reached the boarded up alleyway, Josuke quickly kicked it with his own foot, splintering the wood into many pieces. The man saw them and quickly turned the corner, but Koichi once again was on top of him. Echoes Act 1 threw another word at the man. This time, it was a loud high pitched tone, one that sent him to the ground holding his ears.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING

While running to him, they noticed the many dead bodies Koichi described. There was something very odd about these bodies, however. Whatever injury one of the bodies had, there was another that shared the exact same injury in the exact same place on their bodies. They saw a man shot through the head, and another with the same wound just a few feet away. Two bodies laid only inches away from each other, with large indents in the right side of their skull. But the most troubling discovery was that some of the bodies in the alley had the Pair of lips on their arms, meaning some of these men were Ladies of the Road.

"Is... is this the hot spot?" Josuke asked, puzzled, "Why are there so many dead Ladies here?"

It was a gruesome sight, but the walls were completely clean, and there wasn't a trace of blood anywhere. Some of the bodies were even decomposing clean of flesh and skin, but the pair with the same injury would be exactly the same.

There was, however, one single thing that stood out on the wall. A large piece of graffiti painted with only one color, blue

KARMA POLICE

===To=Be=Continued===


	26. Chapter 26, Karma Police (Part 1)

Stand Fact: Black Magic Woman Shares a very similar physical appearance to Maria Maria, and the porcelain mask the stand has for a face is Maria's face.

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Josuke looked around while Koichi tried to process what this could mean, "Karma Police?" He thought to himself. Could that have any meaning to these dead bodies with matching wounds? Koichi Continued to ponder to himself.

"Okuyasu, I need you to keep by the entrance to the Alley and make sure nobody comes in or out." Josuke said

Okuyasu nodded and walked out of the alley. While he walked out, Josuke used Crazy Diamond to fix the wooden fence that separated this alley from the public street. Okuyasu stood on the other side, away from Josuke and Koichi, and kept watch while making sure to listen for any trouble that Josuke and Koichi might get into. However, Okuyasu couldn't see down the alley, since the wooden fence was really tall and the planks were very tight and close together. Okuyasu would have to just hope that Josuke and Koichi didn't get into too much trouble.

Josuke and Koichi walked over the countless bodies laying around, and made their way to the man they apprehended. However, Koichi noticed something. He thought that Josuke could hear the ear piercing sound created by Echoes Act 1 as well, but Josuke seemed unbothered. The noise has been bugging Koichi the same way it was bugging the mysterious man the second he walked into the alley.

"Josuke, there's something weird about this place." Koichi said, "This man should be the only person hearing Echoes, but I can hear it to. Can you hear it?"

"I don't hear a thing." Josuke said, "Are you sure that isn't part of your ability?"

"No, its not." Koichi said, "There's something going on here."

After Koichi said this, he turned to see the man looking right at them, now unphased by the noise created by Echoes Act 1. He began to stand up, and the words his body disappeared.

"H-HEY." Josuke yelled, "Sit your ass back down."

They were able to get a good look at the man. He was old looking, with a thick grey beard and long dirty hair that almost reached his chest. He had a squint, and one of his eyes was nearly closed while the other was open. He wore a long grey hoodie and baggy red sweatpants with slippers.

"Uh, Koichi?" Josuke whispered, "Do you think this guy might just be a bum?"

It wasn't a stretch to assume this. The man was very dirty and smelled like he hadn't bathed in a very long time. His hair was bunched up and messy, and his clothes were old and stained

"I swear he looked directly at Echoes." Koichi said

"Well, maybe it was just a coincidence. I really don't think this guy is a threat, let alone a stand user." Josuke replied, "But I agree with you, there is definitely something fishy about this alley, use your stand to check him out.

Koichi nodded, and he sent Echoes Act 1 to circle the man and look for any signs of him being a threat.

"Sir, can you please pull up your sleeves and pants, I would like to see if you have a tattoo, of a pair of lips." Josuke said

The man did just that, but he was still silent. Echoes Act 1 looked around his arms and legs, but he couldn't see the tattoo. Josuke was told by Rocko that the wrist or arm is the only place the tattoo would be, so Josuke was now sure that this man wasn't part of the Ladies of the Road. However, Josuke did notice something on the man, small holes in the joint of his arm, suggesting drug use.

"Koichi." Josuke whispered, "Get a closer look at his arm, at the needle marks."

Echoes Act 1 got closer to the mans arm and looked at them. There were 5 small holes, but one of them was considerably older, suggesting that that hole was the first hit this guy had out of the visible marks.

During all of this, the man paid no attention to Echoes Act 1, and instead looked directly at Josuke and Koichi. Josuke immediately has suspicion that this man could have possibly used the drug that gives people stands, based on the fact that there are dead members of the Ladies of the Road laying in this alley. But one mystery was still bugging the two. What is the mystery of this alley? Josuke looked around the bodies, and noticed that only one person of each pair would have a weapon.

While Josuke did this, Koichi walked over to one of the bodies and picked up a bat that was laying next to a pair of bodies that both had indents in their skulls. Without hesitation, Koichi approached Josuke and Swung at him with the bat. Josuke put his hands up to block it, and his finger bent backwards trying to block the wing. As this happened, Koichi's own finger broke and twisted in the same manner.

"What the hell are you doing Koichi?" Josuke yelled

Koichi dropped the bat, and he had a look of fear and confusion on his face.

"I-I-I don't know." Koichi stuttered, "I just felt the urge to do that, but I don't know why I did it."

Josuke then walked over to Koichi and threw a punch at his face. Koichi's nose started to bleed from the impact and he fell over a trash can. Josuke's nose started to bleed as well.

"I'm Sorry Josuke, I don't know why I hit you." Koichi yelled

"K-Koichi." Josuke said, nervous and beginning to sweat, "I know what you're trying to say, because I have no idea why I hit you as well. I just felt a strange urge to punch you."

"This alley is cursed."

Koichi and Josuke turned their heads towards the voice, and saw that it was the old bum who spoke.

"This Alley has been nicknamed Karma Police Lane, and it holds a mystery that nobody can explain." The bum said in a deep raspy voice.

"Y-You know about this?" Koichi yelled while holding his nose to stop the blood.

"Yes, I do." The man replied.

"This alley has a strange property to it. If you do anything to another person while you both stand in this alley, that same action will happen to you."

Koichi and Josuke looked around, and it all clicked. These people who lie dead in the alley tried to kill each other, and they all died in the process due to the Alley's strange property.

"How do you know all of this? Who are you?" Josuke said

"I know very well what happened to all of these people." The old bum said "I'm the one who killed them."

Koichi noticed something slowly walking towards him and Josuke from another path in the alley. It had a faceless head with long horns curving tightly from the sides of its head, making it look like cones growing from its head. It was lengthy and its body looked fleshy and malnourished. Its arms curved up and back down, looking like a mantis's claw. But the most unnerving part was its large mouth on its stomach, which drooled and rumbled.

"I killed all of those bastards at once, because they wronged me, and ruined my life."

===To=Be=Continued===


	27. Chapter 27, Karma Police (Part 2)

Stand Fact: Queen of the Stone Age was actually inspired by a nightmare I had at a very young age. Down to the design and even its ability.

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Josuke and Koichi continued to attack each other, not knowing why they were doing it. They barely had time to talk before one of them would swing at the other. Whatever wound or injury was created with each attack, that same wound or injury would appear on the one who dealt the swing.

"What the hell is happening?" Josuke yelled before going to attack Koichi again.

"I don't know, It feels like I just keep blacking out." Koichi Yelled back, swinging a trash can lid at Josuke.

The homeless man kept looking at them, barely flinching. The weird creature Koichi saw earlier was now standing right in front of Josuke and Koichi, its large mouth on its stomach was drooling and foaming.

"This is a demonstration." The homeless man said.

Suddenly, Josuke and Koichi were both free from whatever spell was set on them. They fell to the ground, looking around at the homeless man and the creature trying to make sense of what happened to them.

"Is - Is this your stand?" Josuke yelled pointing at the creature.

"Yes, this is my stand. I will not tell you what it does, as I need that element of surprise for insurance."

Right after the homeless man finished his sentence, Josuke quickly swung around and used Crazy Diamond to throw a punch at the creature. The punch easily landed, but as soon as he landed a blow to the creatures face, he himself suddenly felt and impact on his face, and blood and a tooth suddenly flew from his mouth. The homeless man also spat out a tooth and blood.

"Do you not pay attention?" The homeless man said, "I told you the secret to this alley, but you still attack my stand."

"What the hell is going on?" Josuke said, "Is this guy for real, or is those whole "curse" also a part of his stand?"

Suddenly, Josuke noticed the creatures mouth on its chest open, and a fog poured out of it. He quickly grabbed Koichi and jumped away.

"This fog, this must be what causes your ability." Josuke said to the homeless man. The fog fell out of the creatures mouth, and settled on the ground, before quickly vanishing. The fog moved around in a very odd and united way, almost like a gust of wind was pushing it in different directions. After this, The homeless man smiled

"I'm afraid you're half right. That is what causes my ability, but it's not fog."

Josuke quickly felt a pinch on his neck, and he turned towards Koichi and threw a punch with his own hand. It hit Koichi in the nose, and flung him to the ground, and Josuke's nose busted with blood as he fell down.

"W-why are you doing this?" Koichi said to the homeless man

"No reason really, you guys just won't stop trying to attack me." The homeless man said, "The second you guys saw me you've been trying to attack me."

The homeless man then pulled a box of cigarettes out of his worn out shirt and put it to his mouth.

"The name's Yorke, by the way. Do either of you have a light?"

Josuke and Koichi both looked at each other. Who the hell is this guy, they both thought to themselves.

"I'll tell you what, if we can all calm down for a moment, we can talk about all these dead bodies and the Ladies of the Road." Yorke said, "That's why you're here? Right?"

Josuke and Koichi's eyes lit up. "How did you know?" Josuke asked

"You guys tried to find their tattoo on my wrist." Yorke replied, "I've worked with the Ladies of the Road, but that was a bit ago, before they all died."

Josuke and Koichi both calmly stood up. They were nervous, as they had no clue what this man was capable of. Yorke's ability was mysterious to them, and it seemed to have been able to kill all these people who's bodies lay before them. Josuke looked at Yorke and nodded.

"Very well, now, first I must ask that you reveal both of your names and abilities to me." Yorke said

It was a very dumb move to reveal yourself to someone who could be an enemy, but Josuke and Koichi had no choice. They both revealed their names and stands. However, Koichi took a gamble. He only told Yorke about Act 1 of Echoes, as its form was the only form that Yorke saw up to that point. Thankfully, Yorke bought it, and he pulled out a match from a garbage can to light his cigarette.

"Now, I'm sure you both know about the Ladies of the Road. They smuggle drugs, deal with prostitutes, take on hits and bounties, their end goal basically is to make money, no matter what the dirty deed may be. I know what it was like, because I was one of them for a short time."

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It all began when I first joined their gang. Back then, it wasn't a standard to Tattoo the lips on your wrist, as that was only established a few years ago. Anyway, when I first joined, they put me here, in Karma Police Lane. This was such a lively place 5 years ago, plenty of people coming in and out every night at around 1 in the morning. It was almost like a county fair of drug dealing and prostitution.

The very reason they chose this place to do such a thing was exactly what you think, with the mystery of Karma Police, they can get away with anything here. If anybody like a cop or a rival member comes and tries to kill anybody here, he will suffer the same fate. It's this reason why very few people know about this lane, of course the gangs were going to keep this a secret for their own benefit.

The Ladies put me here to be a sort of "watchdog", making sure that nobody comes in or out without the higher ups orders or permission. It was good money, but I wasn't allowed to leave the alley. Of course, they set up a room in one of the two abandoned buildings on either side of the alley, but it became very lonely. I remained here for a very long while, so long that a good few of the Ladies even forgot that I was here.

I should mention that I didn't have my stand ability yet. That wasn't until about a month ago.

A very tall and burly woman with long blond hair and a different color of gold ring on each of her fingers, topped with a very thick red coat came to me. She introduced herself as Caroline. She told me that she has very recently become the leader of our gang, and told me about a new drug that she wanted to test on me.

I wasn't a drug user, but she was very persistent. I don't think she had a stand, but she somehow convinced me to take the drug. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground twitching and vomiting, and all she did was shrug and put the needle back into her pocket. I tried to ask for her help, but she simply demanded me to get back into the room in the abandoned building to the side of Karma Police Lane.

About a week later, there was another very large gathering in Karma Police Lane. This was the largest gathering I've seen in a very long time. People from several different small gangs were trading drugs and girls, it was almost a small festival in the alley. I of course was above it all, looking from my room. Everything was going smoothly, as least as smooth as you'd expect a gathering of criminals, prostitutes, and murders would go.

That was, however, before a man approached me from behind.

The man grabbed my arm and put his other hand on my shoulders, but I could feel another set of hands. These hands were very long and had sickly thin fingers, and it's skin was a very dark charcoal black.

"Please, don't struggle." The man standing behind me said, "This can go very smoothly for you if you simply do as I say."

I didn't dare move my body, but I saw something peering from over my shoulder. It was a head of a creature, but it was very tall and cylindrical, and it didn't have a face. It's head rapidly twitched and bobbled, and it made a deep popping sound as it did this.

===To=Be=Continued===


	28. Chapter 28, Karma Police (Part 3)

Karma Police Lane: A mysterious alley way that has a very strange property; anything you do to another person, whether that is negative or positive, will happen to you as well. If you give some money to someone, some money will mysteriously appear in your pocket, but if you were to murder someone in cold blood, you'd drop dead like a fly. The exact cause or reason behind this alley's properties are unknown, and a mystery to everyone who knows about it.

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The man talked in such a tone that I didn't feel threatened, or in danger. Of course, the fact that he had this creature with the tall head standing behind me as well was a bit unnerving, but the man himself spoke in such a calm and sincere voice. His tone was deep, and he spoke with full confidence.

"I see that you notice my stand." The man said

"S-Stand?" I said to him, still unsure of what is going to happen next

"Doesn't matter, you will see soon enough." The man said. I looked back in the direction where I heard his voice. It was very dark in the room, and the clock just hit 1 am. The only thing I could see what his eyes, splashed with light from the meetings below. His eyes were almost a hypnotic yellow, one could almost feel nauseous looking at this mans eyes, as they had the look of both a friend and a killer.

"I need you to so something very simple for me." The man said in his deliberate and deep voice, "I need you to tell everyone down there that there is trouble coming their way."

"W-Why do you want me to do that? Who are you?" I shakily said to him.

"Please, just do as I say." The man said calmly, "I simply wish to get something that I need from here."

As he was saying this, I noticed something else being illuminated on the man. He had several tattoos of hummingbirds and mice on either arms, almost full sleeves going to his hands. In the palm of his hand, there was a tattoo of a droplet falling onto a dead bird.

"You're a member of the Larks in Aspic?" I said to him

"Yes, I am." The man responded truthfully.

"What if they kill me? What if they find out I helped you?" I asked

After I asked this, the man let go of me and walked in front of me, and peered out the window. I noticed a small group of people peering from behind a corner, looking right towards my window. There was a man with a grid styled haircut and a red unbuttoned jacket, there was a blonde woman wearing heart shaped glasses, and a black man with his hair tied back into a ponytail, and wore a large trench coat..

"Now, If you do as I say, you will remain alive and safe." The man said, "I promise."

I shakily nodded my head, and he told me to wait about 10 minutes before doing so. But before he left, he looked at me, and with those horrifying eyes, and he asked me one last question.

"The rumors about this alley, Karma Police, are they true?" he said.

I nodded. After this exchange, he pulled his watch off his wrist, and put a timer for 10 minutes on the watch. He told me that the second this watch rings, I am to yell that there is trouble at the alley entrance.

The Larks in Aspic are the rivals of The Ladies of the Road. Whatever this man wanted here, I couldn't tell, but I was scared for my life, not in the mysterious mans hands, but what the Ladies would do to me. But then again, if I said nothing, and let the man waltz through, wouldn't that help him get through the alley more? No matter what I do, I'm helping the Larks. I tried to look back at the man behind me, but he wasn't around anymore, almost like he vanished into thin air.

A few minutes have passed, and I saw the three strangers above the building on the other side of the alley, looking down on Caroline, who was talking with other people buying from her sellers. About 9 minutes have passed since I was given the watch, and I saw the same man walking up the street towards the alley. What is he trying to do? If I alert the gang members, they'll all see him.

30 seconds remained on the watch, and he was almost to the entrance of the alley. I had no choice, I had to alert my allies.

"HEY, THERE'S SOMEONE UNINVITED COMING IN THE ALLEY." I yelled

I was on the dot. Right as I begun to yell, the watch alarm went off. The man was about 5 feet into the alley, and everyone turned around and pointed a weapon at him. The man simply raised his hands up while everyone circled him and threatened to shoot him. Is this what he wanted? Why would he tell me to do this? These thoughts were going through my mind before I noticed the man with the red jacket pull out a revolver and began to fire into the floor. Everyone quickly turned their attention towards the gunshots.

What I witnessed next I still can't understand. The man with the yellow eyes put his hands back down and he ducked behind a trashcan. Someone noticed him and ran to the trashcan to try and get him back out into the opening, but when he moved the can, the yellow eyes man was gone. Everyone looked around, and someone entered the building that the man with the red jacket sat on top of. Right as they opened the doors though, a barrage of bullets came flying out, and 4 men were gunned down. After that, almost 10 figures wearing thick black jackets, black boots, and a hood covering their face came walking out. These strange figures pointed their guns at the people around them. These things had only one eye, and what seemed to be a respirator on their mouths.

What the hell was going on? I thought this to myself before I noticed that nobody seemed to be dying. Of course, the men that these strange figures shot down are dead, but the figures themselves didn't seem to die to Karma Police's curse. Maybe that if you attack someone from outside or above the alley, the curse doesn't affect you? Anyway, while this was happening, I saw the yellow eyed man again, standing behind Caroline, who was standing near the other end of the alley. Caroline quickly noticed him and tried to turn around and throw a swing, but he ducked and grabbed a small pouch from her waist and quickly ducked behind a trash can.

Just like last time, when they tried to find him behind a trashcan, he was gone.

After this happened, I saw the blonde woman with the heart shaped sunglasses dumping a box of nails into the alley. What the hell is she doing? When those nails were above the people down below, I saw the man with the pony tail and trench coat. He was standing sideways on the side of the wall! When those nails passed him, they suddenly gained as much momentum as a bullet, and the nails shot into the people below. I don't think anybody was killed, but that wasn't the odd part. A moment later the girl with the heart shaped sunglasses backed away, and I heard a large thump, almost like someone falling into a dumpster. When that happened, everyone who was hit with a nail fell to the ground, seemingly in pain.

A moment later, I heard the calm and collected voice behind me again.

"We couldn't find what we were looking for, so we must retreat." The yellow eyed man said. "But as I promised, you will be safe tonight. Trust me."

After he said this, I noticed each of what seemed to be the man's allies disappearing one by one, until they were completely gone.

I quickly ran down to see if I could help. Besides Caroline, it seemed that everyone was injured in some way. Caroline pulled me aside and talked to me.

"WHEN DID THEY GET HERE?" She yelled in a whisper.

"I don't know, I tried to call out that they were here when I could." I replied

She wiped the sweat off her face. She realized that the pouch on her waist was gone, and in rage she kicked a garbage can that was sitting by her to its side.

"Well, that pouch only had empty needles. They didn't get it, thankfully." She said.

"What are you talking about? Who were they?" I said to her

She seemed to ignore my question. She played with the Rose hairpiece that was sitting on her head, and a few seconds later, a few girls seemed to come to her. Oddly enough, they also seemed to be wearing Roses on their heads as well. She demanded that they take me into the alley, and put me dead center in the middle.

"Why do I need to go to the center of the alley?" I asked

After I asked that question, she told the girls to hold on, and she grabbed me by the collar and threw me just outside of the alley.

"Listen Yorke, I'm glad you alerted us, or that could have been a lot worse than it was." She said, "But those guys are going to be a pain in my side. I need to distract them."

After she said this, she stomped on my leg, breaking it almost instantly. I howled out in pain, and when I tried to reach up, she threw my hand onto the ground and stomped on that too. After that, she demanded that the girls with the Roses on their heads drag me to the middle of the alley, and like dogs, they did exactly what she said. As they pulled me to the middle, I noticed that every man in the gang was putting a Rose onto one of the girls heads, and those roses looked almost identical to the one on Caroline's head. When I was in the middle, she threw me down and began to yell to the roofs.

"This man had taken the drug that you seek, only a few weeks ago." Caroline yelled. "If you can take his blood, you may still be able to get the drug. I don't produce the drug anymore, as it seemed to have failed on this man you see before you."

She was trying to make me a sort of poker chip. I knew it was bullshit that she stopped producing the new drug that she tested on me, but she seemed to be happy using my life as a bluff. I tried to convince her to spare me, but she wouldn't listen. I was horrified that the yellow eyed man would take her up on this offer.

But what still wasn't clear to me at the time was why were these men and women who attacked the alley trying to get this drug? What was it about this drug that would push this kind of conflict? My answer would of course be given in time, but back then I had no clue what was going on.

While she was trying to gamble my life, I noticed something coming towards me from a turn in the alley. It was a thin creature crawling along side the wall of the buildings in the alley. It had only two holes on its face for eyes, and horns that would curve out on the sides of its head, looking like cones. Its mouth wasn't on its face, but on its chest, and the whole stands body was a sickly greenish yellow.

It crawled along the walls, and when it was directly in front of me, it seemed to turn around and look at me. The only people who seemed to notice the creature was me and Caroline. The creature didn't make any expression with its 2 holes for eyes and its mouth, but I still felt a strange connection to this thing.

It didn't speak, but I still felt it talking to me. "TELL ME TO DO IT, TELL ME TO DO IT, TELL ME TO DO IT." It felt like these words were being sent from it to me, and eventually, I nodded to the creature.

As soon as I did this, the creature opened the mouth on its chest, and a swarm of mosquito looking creatures poured out of its mouth and flew around the alley. Eventually, every person in the alley was stung by one, except for Caroline, who saw all of this and swatted the insects. She grabbed the rose on her head, then all of the girls in the alley with roses on their heads as well came to her side. All of the girls came at me, and tried to pull me out of the alley, maybe so Caroline can try and kill me, but this wouldn't happen.

Everyone in the alley, including the girls with roses on their heads swatted their bodies, as if they've been stung by insects. After this, everyone slowly pulled up a weapon; a gun, a bat, their fists, anything they had, and they all started to attack each other. Some people simply shot someone next to them, and both of them would die. Some of the girls would bite each other's neck, and rip out their jugulars. Once again, both girls would die from this. Some people would swing a blunt weapon at another and concave their skulls, and the same indent would appear on the attacker. Eventually, everyone in the alley was dead, except for me and Caroline.

I looked at the creature, who was still on the wall.

"What are you?" I said to it.

Without a word, almost like a subconscious connection, I knew right away what this thing was. It was my stand, my fighting spirit, and I knew its name as well.

Climbing Up The Wall was its name.

===To=Be=Continued===


	29. Chapter 29, Karma Police (Part 4)

Name: Yorke (Last name Unknown)

Stand: Climbing Up the Wall

Appearance: Yorke at present is a ragged old homeless man with long grey tangled hair and a thick grey beard. His clothes are torn, but they seem to have been fairly decent clothes before suffering the effects of time.

Ability: Climbing Up the Wall released a swarm of Mosquito like creatures from the mouth on its stomach. If these insects sting anyone, they will have the urge to attack someone or something close to them. During this time, the target won't even know why they're attacking.

Has an affinity for Art and Cooking.

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It was just me and Caroline standing in the alley. The rest of the prostitutes and drug dealers have fallen dead, murdered by each other and themselves. I looked around, but before knew it, a Rose was flying through the air and landed on my chest. The second that Rose hit my chest, my whole body tensed up, and I couldn't move. I lied tensed up on the ground, and Caroline came up to me and grabbed me by the neck and dragged me towards the other end of the alley.

"You Shit Stain." She said to me with a hateful and livid tone in her voice. Her face was almost red, the sheer look of anger on her face was enough to scare any man or woman.

"Do you realize what you've just done to me?" Caroline said.

"N-No. What is going on?" I choked, "What is this drug that those Larks wanted?"

Caroline kept on dragging me through the alley, and once in a while dropping me to give me a kick in the stomach or face. By the time we were at the end of the alley, I had several broken bones and missing teeth. She didn't hold back, she wailed on me over and over, until I was barely alive. Of course, being Karma Police Lane, she was taking the same injuries as I, but I don't think she cared one bit.

"Do you know how much I put into this, how much I spent for the source of the drug?" She said through her clenched teeth, kicking me in the stomach once again. Eventually, we were outside of the alley, on the sidewalk right next to the empty streets.

"I got my ability the same way you did, and I used it to take control of this gang." She said

"W-what did you do with our former leader?" I said, coughing up blood and chipped teeth.

"I made that bitch walk off the top of a building." She laughed hysterically. I had never seen her like this. It's clear that she had finally snapped, and she was more than happy to kill me.

"W-what's your ability? Is that what you used to control those girls?" I said. I didn't know if she would even answer, but I had nothing to lose from asking.

"I was going to make an empire of slaves, all as obedient as puppies." Caroline said through her hysteria and anger.

She walked back to the alley, and found an axe that one of the dead gang members was holding, and she began to walk back to me.

"It's a shame my ability doesn't work as well with men." She said, "I'd be happy for you to be a slave, helping me build everything you just destroyed back up."

Without a word, she began to raise the axe above her head, and she was aiming towards my head. Caroline was about to swing, but we both noticed a small stray puppy walking towards us. Oddly enough, we were both fascinated by it, but we didn't know why. The puppy behaved normally, but something was off about it, but we couldn't tell. Eventually, the puppy made its way to my head and curled up into a ball on the side of my head. Caroline had enough, and she swung her axe at the puppy out of rage. However, this would prove to lead to her death.

As the axe was about to make contact with the puppy, a hand emerged out of the puppy, and caught the axe in its hand. After that, more of a creature emerged out of the puppy. It was the tall headed creature from earlier, the one that was next to the yellow eyed man. It's head still vibrated and twitched intensely, and it loomed closer to Caroline. Caroline was about to try and swing at the creature, but the creature was too fast. It grabbed at Caroline's face and neck, its long thin fingers digging deep into her skin like 10 long metal nails. She coughed up a bit of blood before the creature suddenly dragged her towards it, and they both submerged back into the puppy. A second after that, my body untensed, and I was able to move again.

I quickly backed away from the puppy. I had no clue what the hell just happened, and I still don't to this day, but I was filled with fear. That tall headed thing emerged and submerged that small animal as easily as water. Eventually, the puppy got back up and it ran away. I'm not sure, but I swear that the puppy vanished into thin air when it got far away from me, but I couldn't tell from the dark of the night. I was still filled with questions, but I snapped back when I heard a loud bang coming from a trashcan next to me. Filled with dread, I approached the trashcan and opened it. Amazingly, a flurry of Hummingbirds and Butterflies came flying out, the air around me filled with beautiful colors. However, this beauty would soon turn sinister when I looked in and saw what was inside the trashcan.

It was Caroline, cut perfectly into 10 pieces.

I closed the trashcan and jumped back. I then noticed the yellow eyed man, standing at the other end of the alley. He was underneath a Street Light, so I was able to finally get a good look at him.

He was reasonably tall and muscular, wearing a white shirt underneath an old wool jacket. His black sweat pants had seemingly meaningless designs going down to his plain black shoes. He had black facial hair, a mustache with his beard being cut into 5 strips around his jaw. His black hair was tied back into a bun behind his head. The sleeves on his wool jacket were pulled up, revealing his tattoos of humming birds and mice on his arms. He slowly walked to me, grabbed the watch from my pocket, and he nodded at me. After that, he simply walked away, disappearing into the night.

That man kept his promise, I was still alive by the end of the night.

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Yorke cracked his knuckles, and popped his neck

"And that's the story of what happened here." Yorke said, "I never saw that man again, nor did I ever seen those people who seemed to help him."

Koichi and Josuke stood before Yorke, not knowing what to do with all this information

"Wait a second." Josuke said, "What does that mean for the Ladies of the Road?"

"The Ladies of the Road are no more." Yorke said, "Hell, some of the members don't even know it, they still think Caroline is alive."

"If Caroline is dead, who is producing the drug?" Koichi said

After Koichi asked this, Yorke's face lit up, and he looked at Koichi and Josuke

"I see, it's the drug you're after?" He said, "Why are you looking for the drug?"

"We want to put an end to it." Josuke said, "It's too dangerous to just be floating through the streets."

Yorke closed his eyes after Josuke said this, and he stood up.

"I can't let you do that. The man who helped me that night deserves to get his hands on it."

"But it's dangerous, so many lives have already been lost because of it." Josuke yelled.

Yorke opened his eyes, which were filled with loyalty and determination

"I will make sure the man who saved me achieves his goal."

Behind Josuke and Koichi was a swarm of Mosquitoes, sent from the mouth of Climbing Up the Wall. There must have been thousands of them, and there was no way they were going to simply dodge them. However, even with all this, Josuke smiled.

"Good job Koichi." He said, "Sharp as ever."

All of the Mosquito's latched onto Koichi and Josuke at once, but the second any of them touched the duo, they would immediately burst into flames and fall to the ground. On Josuke and Koichi's backs were onomatopoeia

ZAP

"What, What did you do?" Yorke said, nervously. "You told me your ability, how is it able to do that?"

Yorke noticed something floating in the air behind Koichi. It was his stand, but it looked very different. It was a bit more humanoid, with armor pieces covering its knees, elbows, and a large piece of armor around its necks, which also served as shoulder pads.

"What you saw earlier was only Act 1 of my ability." Koichi said, walking towards Yorke. "I lied to you when you told us to reveal our abilities. Now that you revealed your ability, I know exactly how to counter it."

"You're done here." Koichi said, pointing at Yorke.

Yorke backed away from the short Koichi walking towards him. "You can't hurt me, we're still here in Karma Police Lane." Yorke said

Just as he said this, however, he noticed that in almost the blink of an eye, he was outside of the alley, and standing at the sidewalk near the street.

"HMM" A voice behind him said, popping his knuckles, "How about now? Now can we beat your ass?"

Yorke turned around to see Okuyasu and The Hand, and he began to run away.

"He's running away, Koichi, team combo, lets go." Okuyasu yelled.

Koichi grabbed onto Okuyasu and The hand Swiped at the air, and sending the two right next to Yorke instantly. Koichi and Okuyasu were mere inches away from Yorke, and Koichi spoke

"Act 3"

Once again, Koichi's stand's appearance changed, this time, the stand was far more humanoid. It had the number 3 on what seemed to be shorts the stand was wearing. It had green round protrusions all over its body, looking like its muscles, on its legs, on its chest, and a line of them going down its forehead and ending between it's yellow eyes. The stand almost appeared to be wearing clothes, a pair of pants, and a pair of white shoes. The stand was almost the same height as Koichi, and the same build and tone as him too.

"HOLY SHIT" Echoes Act 3 said, "FUCKIN' AY, LETS KILL THIS BITCH"

"FREEZE" Echoes Act 3 threw out a fury of punches at Yorke. These punches seemed to do little damage, and Yorke didn't seemed phased. However, after it threw the punches, Act 3 put its hands together, and turned them sideways. Instantly, Yorke fell to the ground, the pavement under him cracking and flying under his weight.

"W-What are you going to do, Kill me?" Yorke whispered, hushed by the feeling of his lungs loosing all its air.

"Oh no, we aren't going to kill you." Josuke said, "But we would like to know more about this drug you took."

"I told you all that I knew, I swear. That night was all that I can remember of that drug, and I don't know who's producing it now that Caroline is dead." Yorke said.

After this, Koichi, Okuyasu, and Josuke looked at eachother and nodded. Koichi undid Act 3 Freeze, and Yorke quickly stood up.

"I HATE THIS ALLEY." he yelled, his face turning red in frustration and rage. "I hate the ladies of the road, I hate all of this shit that's been going on. I hate living in this evil world, and I hate you."

After Yorke said this, his face lost all emotion. He looked right past Josuke, and without warning, his lifeless body fell to the ground. His face slamming on the pavement below and blood flowing out of his nose.

"W-What happened to him?" Okuyasu yelled, pointing at him. Josuke turned him over and listened for a heart beat. Unfortunately, Josuke couldn't hear a pulse

"He's dead." Josuke said, confusion running in his mind

All three of them noticed something, however, a woman peering from behind a corner, looking at the trio. The odd part though is that this woman seemed to be made of stone, and had her eyes closed. After a moment, another face seemed to peer from across the corner, an old man with a cigar in his mouth, wearing a pair of glasses and a green turtleneck.

"Ah, so now we know who killed Joseph." The man said

"Who are you? Did you do this?" Josuke yelled at the man

The old man introduced himself. It was Harold Land, and his stand, Nirvana.

"Eh, it was an accident." Harold said, "I was hoping that I could wipe his memory, hopefully get rid of another future headache. But he said how he hated living, and there was nothing I can do."

"How long were you here?" Koichi asked

"I've been here the whole time." Harold replied, "When they told me someone not in the gang was going to look into this drug, I had to keep an eye on you guys."

The four of them looked at Yorke, who was lying lifeless on the ground

"I really didn't mean to kill him, it's really hard to take things into account like this with my stand."

Josuke turned to Harold. "So you noticed that connection too? The man in Yorkes story killed the Ladies' leader the same way the dealer and Joseph died."

Harold nodded. "It's definitely a connection, but it could barely be called a clue. We don't have a name, a location, but we do have one thing, a kill order."

"What do you mean?" Koichi said

"The events of his story happened about a week ago. If my memory serves, Joseph died just over a week ago as well." Harold said, "And after he killed Joseph, he seemed to have killed the dealer for the Ladies."

"What are you getting at?" Okuyasu said

"It's just a guess, but it got me thinking." Harold said, "What if the killer actually wanted Joseph's help to get this drug? Why else would Joseph be involved?"

===To=Be=Continued===


	30. Chapter 30, Guy Darling

Name: Koichi Hirose

Stand: Echoes

Appearance: Koichi has spiky and messy grey hair, even since a young age, his hair has always been a grey color. He wears a Dark green pair of sweatpants and a lighter green hoodie with stars going along the bottom near the pockets. Even being over 30 like Josuke and Okuyasu, he only grew a few inches since 1999.

Ability: Act 1: Able to use onomatopoeia to create sound, either on a person or object. These sounds can either be sound effects or even a phrase to change someones will. However, these sounds will fade away if the target has a strong will

Act 2: An upgrade from the previous ability, the onomatopoeia will now give an object the property of the sound effect. For example, he can put the words "ZAP" on himself to zap away any insects he touches, or use the word "Sizzle" To make something has hot to the touch as a skillet.

Act 3: The final form of echoes, it is able to make something extremely heavy with an ability called "Freeze". The stand also has a mind of its own, and will often speak, usually very vulgar.

Has an affinity for Animals and Manga.

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"Yes, I'll take a large hot dog with ketchup, as much ketchup as you're allowed to put on."

"Right away sir, here you go."

"Thank you very much."

Often, one will look to the city for answers, maybe they'll see something that connects their ideas together, or maybe just the sight of the beautiful and larger than life buildings can inspire someone. This is what Waylon Cash was hoping for, thinking of a way to leave this concrete jungle.

Ever since moving to New York, Cash has felt unsatisfied with life, wanting more not only for himself, but for his wife and daughter. Although his wife soon left him after the move, he still wanted the best for his 7 year old Daughter. Still, the acts he's done up to that point to achieve that goal have left him scarred, and filled with guilt like a bucket about to fall over.

Waylon Cash was walking down the street doing just that, hoping to find some sign from anything above him on what he should do next. He wanted to just take his daughter and run, but he was unsure of the consequences. He was already nervous from failing the mission to capture Rocko, so he didn't dare to imagine what the Lark's in Aspic would do if he ran away from the gang.

As he was pondering, he took a seat on an old wooden bench that sat outside of an old small grocery. It was a beautiful day, even for New York's standards. The air was warm, but just cool enough so one wouldn't feel toasted enjoying the sun's shine. As he was sitting, he felt the presence of someone sit next to him. It was a bit before he looked over to the man who sat next to him, and instead of of a normal stranger being there as he expected, it was a muscular black man with his hair tied back into a pony tail, wearing a large wool trench coat. The trench coat was decorated with letters, an H, a B, an F, and an S.

"Guy Darling?" Cash said nervously, slowly reaching for the gun in his holster.

"Woah, hang on Waylon, I don't mean any harm brother." Guy said. "Take a seat man, lets talk for a little bit."

Hesitant, Cash sat back down, keeping a distance on the bench between him and Guy Darling.

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" Guy said. "I love this sunny weather, it feels so nice to finally go outside after all that snow, yeah?"

Cash didn't answer, but just continued to look forward. Guy noticed this and simply looked forward too. He took out a vape mod out of a pocket on his coat and began to take hits, waiting for Cash to come around. About a minute has passed before Cash finally broke the silence

"Now that you found me, what are you going to do?"

Guy turned to face Cash while putting the mod back into his pocket. "Well, the boss wants to talk to you, but besides that, I have no bad intentions with you brother."

"What does the boss want to talk about?" Cash said

Guy looked around, as if trying to remember. "Uh, I think it was something about your daughter man."

Cash quickly looked at Guy, and he sprang up, pulling his gun out at him. "What did he do to my daughter?" He yelled

"Woah man, I don't know. That's all he told me to do, to find you and tell you what I just told you."

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY DAUGHTER?" Cash yelled, pointing his gun at Guy, "TELL ME RIGHT NOW, YOU SON OF A BITCH."

"I swear to you man, I told you all that he told me."

Unhappy with the answer, Cash fired a bullet at Guy. The bullet sped through the air until it was about a foot away from Guy, until the bullet suddenly changed directions and hit the ground straight below.

"Don't do this brother." Guy said, "I didn't come here to harm you, but I WILL fight back."

Cash fired another bullet at Guy, but the same thing happened, the bullet suddenly changing directions and hitting the ground below Guy.

"Waylon, just sit down, and we can talk this through, Please brother."

Cash barely listened, as he was distracted by the possibilities of what happened to his daughter. His hand was shaking, and his face was sweating. Without a hesitation, he fired 5 more rounds at Guy. As he did this, and egg shaped object suddenly appeared above Guy. The Object grew 4 long propellers around it, almost like a helicopter. These propellers had small bulges going around it, and the propellers began to spin. As this happened, for a split second, the air around Guy was warped and shaking, and the bullets once again were sent straight to the ground.

"Please, I beg you Waylon, it doesn't have to end this way brother." Guy said, a look of sadness and forgiveness on his face.

Without hearing his plead, several Highwaymen sprouted out of the ground next to Guy, and fired a bullet each at Guy's face. However, the egg shaped object suddenly flew behind him, with the propellers facing Cash. The bullets changed directions, and they all shot at Waylon, piercing his body in several places. Cash flew back and fell to the ground. Thankfully, none of the bullets hit his vitals, but he was in intense pain from the wounds.

"I told you that I would fight back Waylon." Guy Darling said, standing up with the Egg shaped object moving back above him. "I didn't want things to go this route brother, but you left me no choice."

Cash slowly stood back up, and he kept pointing his gun at Guy. The air around Guy was warping, this time it was continuing to do so. Guy walked over the Highwaymen that were created on the ground, and they suddenly began to rip and shred apart, as if something massive and heavy was being grounded on top of them.

"You were never able to beat me in friendly fights Waylon." Guy said, "But even then, I was never serious. You chose the wrong fight brother, Face to Face is almost a complete counter to your Highwaymen"

===To=Be=Continued===

Attention: Apologies for the short chapter. Time has been strict, but I will make it up with the next chapter.


	31. Chapter 31 Face to Face (Part 1)

Cash was able to stand back up, blood and shrapnel pouring out of the wounds covering his body. Guy Darling continued to slowly approach Cash, the look of disappointment washing over his face. Cash knew his ability, Face to Face, long before the fight, as the two have fought with each other on multiple occasions. Cash knew that in order to even scratch guy, he would have to retreat and think of a strategy. Guy's stand was almost a perfect counter to the Highwaymen, as every single time the two would have a friendly duel, Guy would always win.

Cash began to stumble away, turning the corner to another street. People noticed him, bloodied and wounded and tried to help him, but Cash simply pushed them all aside. Guy was very close behind, and Cash acted quickly, firing multiple rounds up a wall on the side of a 3 story building. Out of these bullet holes sprouted arms of the Highwaymen, which Cash grabbed and used to climb up one by one until he was on top of a building.

"Shit" Cash said to himself, "What can I do, I signed my own death certificate firing at Guy."

Guy approached the building and looked up at Cash. The arms of the Highwaymen quickly started to fire at Guy, but just like before, all of the bullets would be pushed back in Cash's direction. Cash ducked down to avoid the bullets.

"Come on brother." Guy yelled, "Make this easy for both of us, and just talk to the boss, huh?"

Cash said nothing, and continued to let the arm's of the Highwaymen fire. Unphased, Guy sighed and walked up to the wall. The egg shaped object with long helicopter like propellers then moved behind him, the propellers facing the wall. Guy put his foot to the wall, and as easy as walking on the ground, he began to walk up the wall. Cash anticipated this, and he fired several rounds at the wall across the building he created the arms on. Those bullet holes then became arms themselves, and they started to fire at Guy. Once again, Guy sighed and jumped off the wall.

Face to Face then began to rapidly swing from either side of Guy, causing the bullets to fly right back at the arms, killing every single one of them. Before Guy even landed on the ground, Face to Face returned to facing the wall, and Guy landed right back onto the side of the building. As he continued to walk back up, Cash begun to run to the edge on the other side of the rooftop. He fired a round at the edge on a neighboring rooftop, and an arm sprouted and began to fire rapidly at the edge he was standing on. Once an arm sprouted, another bullet would hit the arm, causing an arm to sprout out of the already existing arm. Eventually, there was a long chain of limbs, and the hand on the end of the chain grabbed onto the hand that created the chain, and created a makeshift bridge. As Cash was crossing the limb bridge, he looked back to see Guy right behind him, standing on the ledge that he was just on.

"Stop running Waylon, you won't be able to get away brother." Guy said

Cash fired at the rooftop Guy was standing on, and several full Highwaymen grew around Guy. They shot a few rounds, not at Guy, but at Face to Face. Cash knew that Face to Face itself was Guy's only weak spot, so he tried to injure it. However, Face to Face was too fast, and quickly moved around Guy to dodge the bullets. Doing this also sent the bullets back at the Highwaymen, sending them to the ground one by one.

Although Cash was making plenty of mistakes while distracted by the thought of his daughter, he knew exactly what Guy's stand does. Face to Face can create almost a small pocket of personal gravity for Guy Darling. Wherever the propellers on the stand face, that would dictate the direction Guy's own pocket of gravity. This means that if Guy wanted to walk up a wall, Face to Face can aim its propellers at the wall, and Guy can walk up effortlessly.

This gravity isn't just like normal earth gravity, however. This gravity is 100 times stronger than the earth, and any living thing that goes into his pocket of gravity will almost instantly be crushed under its own weight. This ability does not work on Guy, obviously, and it will not destroy objects, but simply redirect their path.

Although the Highwaymen were barely able to touch Face to Face or Guy Darling, it was at least a distraction, and Cash was able to cross the limb bridge and get to the other rooftop. The limb bridge fell apart and vanished after he made it across. Guy stood at the neighboring rooftop looking at Cash, and without hesitation, he jumped. He landed on the side of the building, and he made a large leap in the air. As soon as he was in the middle of the alley between the two buildings, Face to Face quickly moved under Guy, and he quickly flew to the other building.

By the time Guy was on top of the building, Cash was already at the other side of it. He shot a bullet about half way down the next neighboring building, and jumped and grabbed the arm that sprouted from that shot. He then jumped back down to the bottom of the alley, and attempted to run into the large population of the city, walking to their destination.

Guy looked around the crowd from the top of a building. Suddenly, he noticed a lone Highwayman, shooting several rounds in several different directions, possibly trying to create more copies of itself. He quickly ran over to it and used his ability to destroy the Highwayman under intense gravity. After this, he noticed a trail of blood along the sidewalk, leading to an alley, and he began to follow it.

Cash frantically ran through the crowd, once again gathering attention, and once again shoving through countless people trying to get away. He made his way into an alleyway, quickly looking around for signs of Guy. When he felt that he was alone, he sat down to try and get a breather. However, as he was laying his head down to rest, he heard breathing above him, and he looked up to see Guy Darling standing only a foot away from him.

"Ok Waylon." He said, "You're right where I want you. Let's just take it easy, and I won't have to use my stand, Yeah?"

Cash was well within Face to Face's range, and if he were to move a muscle, Guy could easily crush him with his pocket of gravity.

"You must have known that you couldn't beat me Waylon, you're being stubborn." Guy said, "I understand you're worried about your daughter, but that's exactly what Brock wants to talk to you about.

Cash looked around, and he spoke

"You beat me every time Guy." He said, "But you still underestimate what the Highwaymen are capable of."

Suddenly, several bullets fell from the sky. They were the shots fired by the Highwaymen that Guy had killed earlier. The bullets came flying from the sky at high speed, and they flew effortlessly through Guy's body, dropping him to the ground. It caught him by surprise, and Face to Face wasn't able to react in time.

Cash stood up to fire one last bullet at Guy, but as the bullet flew near him, it didn't fly in another direction, but rather it stoop perfectly in place, as if frozen in a block of ice.

===To=Be=Continued===


	32. Chapter 32, Face to Face (Part 2)

Name: Guy Darling

Stand: Face to Face

Appearance: Guy Darling is a moderately built man with a large black wool trench coat and black jeans with white lines resembling nets designed onto them. His trench coat has the letters H, B, F, and S written on the sleeves and collar. His hair is tied back into a pony tail, and has small black studs on both of his ears.

Ability: Face to Face is able to change the direction of gravity in a small area around Guy, essentially creating a small bubble of personal gravity. This allows Guy to walk up walls, stand on the ceiling, and even float in the air when Face to Face rapidly spins around him. This gravity is incredibly powerful, nearly 100 times stronger than the earth. Any living thing is crushed instantly under the strength of the gravity, but it does not effect Guy.

Has an affinity for the Matrix and House music.

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The bullet was frozen perfectly in the air, as if frozen in time. Cash tried to fire a few more rounds, but just like the first, they would stop just as it hits Face to Face's range. Although Cash knew Face to Face's ability, he didn't know what was happening. He looked around for Guy's stand, but he couldn't find it anywhere. Guy raised back up, and looked at Cash. Although he still had the eyes of a man who didn't want to fight, it was mixed with full confidence.

"You might be wondering what's going on, huh?" Guy said, "It's a new thing I recently learned with my stand."

Cash backed away. He never seen this happen with Face to Face before. "Was this a new ability?" He thought to himself.

Just then, a Highwayman came running from the other end of the alley, a large machete in his hand. He ran at Guy attempting to swing at him, but this would prove fruitless. As soon as the Highwayman was in Face to Face's range, it completely froze, as the bullets have before him. A few seconds after this, one of Cash's bullets quickly orbited around Guy and struck the Highwayman in the neck, and freezing back into place once the bullet passed through its throat.

Guy had no time to think, he quickly shot rounds up the building to create the same line of arms that he used before, and began to climb the building. However, he noticed Guy, stepping on top of what seemed like nothing. To Cash, it seemed like Guy was walking on thin air, casually walking to the same level as Cash almost like he was walking up a flight of stairs. What Cash still couldn't understand is where Face to Face was, as it needed to be there to direct Guy's gravity. However, it wasn't anywhere to be seen, completely gone from the fight.

Once Guy was next to Cash, he quickly jumped at him, putting Cash into his range. As soon as he was in Guy's range, Cash felt like his entire body was frozen. He was unable to move his body, not even an inch. Guy walked down the alley again, seemingly walking on air as he did before. Suddenly, Cash felt himself thrusted towards a group of trash cans, sending garbage everywhere, and leaving him leaning against the wall.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Guy said

"What the hell is this?" Cash said, looking at the floating bullets and pieces of garbage suspended in the air next to Guy.

"This is a new move I learned to achieve with Face to Face." Guy said, "My stand is spinning around me at such a high speed, that its almost everywhere around me at once. Since the flow of gravity is moving around me, its creating an odd anomaly where there is gravity, but there isn't. This creates almost a perfect barrier around me, where I can control anything in my range."

Cash looked at the floating bullets and smirked

"Do you actually have the guts to kill me Guy?" Cash said with a large smile on his face

Guy Darling got a nervous look on his face, and he didn't say anything. Before he knew it, Cash fired several rounds into the walls and ground around the alley. Those walls sprouted arms and began to fire more rounds into the walls and ground. Eventually, there were nearly a hundred arms armed with Cash's revolver, aiming at Guy Darling.

"Brother, you can't penetrate my stands defense." Guy said, "This attack is going to fail."

"I know." Cash said, pulling out his revolver. All of the Highwaymen's arms began to fire at Guy, sending hundreds and hundreds of bullets at him. Of course, Face to Face was able to stop every bullet with its ultimate move, but a new problem began to rise for Guy. There were too many bullets, and he was running out of room to keep them inside his bubble. He can easily send all of those bullets at Cash, killing him almost instantly, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He knew that Cash was taking advantage of that kindness and refusal to kill him, but Guy still couldn't do it.

Eventually, Guy was completely surrounded by lead, and was unable to see. "Shit, I can't see out of these bullets." Guy thought to himself, "I'll be able to stop any upcoming bullets, but I'll eventually run out of room to keep them inside my gravity bubble. I'll eventually be crushed by these bullets."

Guy once again couldn't bring himself to just fire all of those bullets at Cash. He had no choice but to stop his ability, and let all of the bullets fall to the ground. When we was able to see again, he saw nearly 100 full Highwaymen surrounding him completely. He attempted to use his ability again, but when Face to Face appeared, one of the Highwaymen quickly grabbed it and held it in his arms. Face to Face was unable to escape the Highwayman's clutches, and Guy was defenseless.

Cash slowly walked up to Guy, and grabbed his phone out of his pocket. "I want you to call Brock, and tell him that you were unable to catch me." Cash said

"He didn't send me to catch you brother." Guy said, "He told me to simply keep an eye out for you, and tell you what I told you."

"Well, we're going to give him a call right now." Cash said, giving Guy his phone to call his boss.

Guy did just that, and dialed his phone, and it rang.

"Hello?" said the voice on the other end

After a moment, Guy forgot about the threat of the Highwaymen, and tried to get help

"I'm completely surrounded by Cash's Highwaymen, I need you or someone to come and help me." He said

Cash quickly shot the phone out of Guy's hand.

"You're real fucking stupid, you know that?" Cash said with anger in his voice. He snapped his fingers, and all of the Highwaymen surrounding Guy Darling took fire at his legs. His legs were blown off almost instantly, sending Guy falling to the ground.

"Huh, looks like I didn't have the guts to kill you." Cash said, looking back at Guy, "Why don't you just sit there and think about today. I'm going to go get my daughter and run away from this shitty crooked city."

As Cash said this, Face to Face was able to squirm its way out of the Highwaymen's clutches, and Guy tried to attack, but Cash was a step ahead. One of the Highwaymen quickly shot at Face to Face, leaving a hole in the stand. A hole appeared in Guy Darlings face, and he slumped for good. Face to Face fell to the ground, breaking apart, and those pieces fizzling away into nothing. Cash looked at the mess, his old friend laying dead, and blood on his hands.

"I want you to clean this up. After that, I want you all to disappear." He said, trying not to look at the body too much. The Highwaymen all nodded and began to clean up. As Cash began to run towards his house. He motioned a taxi, and was driven away from the scene, and out of sight of the Highwaymen.

===To=Be=Continued===


	33. Chapter 33, Further Up On The Road

Fact: Dirty Harry had other possible names that I was gonna go for, including Plastic Beach, Empire Ants, Green World, or even Kids with Guns, but I ultimately decided Dirty Harry was more fitting for both the stand and character.

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Waylon Cash soon arrived at his home in Albany. The sun was setting low in the sky, and it was beginning to get dark. After he exited and paid the taxi driver, he ran to the front door of him home in a full sprint. His door and windows were all intact, and no signs of a break in were present. Still, he frantically pulled his keys out and unlocked the door, and pushed himself in. The baby sitter should have still been there, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Cash's house was decorated with relics and nostalgic keep sakes from his time in Ohio. The walls were painted a classic blue, and his house was decorated with Deer heads and other taxidermy animals from his hunting days. The carpet was old, but well maintained and clean, and that goes for the rest of his house. There was no sign anywhere that someone had broken in.

"Rosanne?" Cash yelled out, waiting to hear a response from his daughter.

He continued to walk towards her room, and opened the door. She seemed to be in her bed, as there was a large lump under her blankets. He heard breathing coming from under the bed, which sent a wave of relief at Cash. He walked over to his daughter, wanting to wake her up and leave. However, something was wrong; There was glass everywhere, and the blanket on top of his daughter was drenched in blood. His eyes shot open, and he tore the blankets away to see his daughter.

He saw his daughter alright, but there was two of her, one of which seemed to explode from the others' chest.

He felt his legs give away at the sight, and he fell back onto a dresser. He couldn't make a sound with his mouth, and his eyes wouldn't drift away from the copy of his daughter with half of her body in another copy of his daughters chest. He slowly approached the gory bloody mess and tried to touch his daughter's face. As soon as his finger touched the copy however, it broke apart into glass, and fizzled away into nothing. The same didn't happen when he touched the face of the other copy of his daughter. At that moment that he knew that this was his real daughter, with a massive hole in her chest. He tried desperately to find a way that she was still alive; he felt her pulse, he tried to look for a beat in her exposed heart, he tried to hear a breath coming from her mouth. However, it was all for naught, she was gone.

Cash felt his own heart stop, and his whole body felt cold. He fell to his knees, looking at his daughters dead body. A whole 10 minutes went by before he came out of his funk, and his breath began to come again. However, the next few minutes were a total blur to him, as he lost himself to a mania of sadness and rage. He threw chairs, dressers, kicked in the wall, and shot several rounds of bullets into random directions, including the tv in the front room. Almost 30 minutes have passed, and his house was torn to shreds in his tantrum of anger. Eventually, Highwaymen grew out of the bullet holes, and they tried to approach Cash. Cash threw a punch at one of them, and the two others that were created held him back and tried to calm him down. Eventually, Cash thought normally again, and he looked at the highwaymen.

His voice was shaky, and he could barely finish a word without needing a breath. "Search... This whole house." He said in a shaky and breathy voice. "I want you... to look everywhere. Find any evidence... I don't care if you tear the walls down."

All of the Highwaymen nodded and left to search the house. Cash remained in his living room, and his body collapsed onto a chair. All that ran through his mind was his daughter, nothing else. Tears built up and ran down his face.

"Oh god." He said under his breath. "Please god, give me strength." More tears ran down his face and his breathing became uneven again. Cash felt like he died, but he's still very much alive, along with the bullet wounds littering his body from the fight with Guy. He felt like he could just die now, as everything that he held in his life was suddenly gone.

The Highwaymen obediently searched the house, not leaving a single corner untouched. Eventually, one of the Highwaymen made their way into the Rosanne's room. He searched the whole room, but couldn't find a thing out of place, except one thing; A broken mirror with several shards of glass everywhere on the dresser and the floor. As he was walking around the mirror, he noticed a small glimmer in Rosanne's chest. He went and looked inside the wound, and he pulled out a small shard of the mirror, which was covered in blood. The Highwayman closely inspected the shard of glass, then looked at the mirror. The Highwaymen's precision doesn't just come into use when it comes to firing a weapon, as the Highwayman was quickly able to gather the shards of glass and put them back together on the dresser, and just like the last piece of the puzzle, the bloody shard of glass fit perfectly in the middle of the rebuilt mirror.

The Highwayman left the room to get Cash to look at the clue he has discovered. Once Cash was in Rosanne's room, the Highwayman pointed at the bloody piece of glass, then pointed at Rosanne's dead corpse, then back at the broken mirror. Cash picked up the bloody shard of glass and closely inspected it as well.

"You noticed the fingerprint on the corner too, right?" Cash said to the Highwayman. The Highwayman nodded.

Cash had no other leads besides this clue. However, he remembered Guy talking about his daughter, and how the Lark's might have something to do with it.

"Do you think Guy did this?" Cash said to the Highwayman. The Highwaymen shook his head in disagreement. "I didn't think so either." Cash said

Cash thought for a moment, poured himself a shot of whiskey, and looked around at his torn apart house. Eventually, he settled on his thoughts, and he pulled out a small notebook from his drawer in the kitchen, and began to pen down names.

Dreamboat Annie

Mellon Collie

Dwele West

Pork Soda

After a moment, he wrote down one last name, the one who he thinks ringed the whole thing

Brock Bukowski.

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Meanwhile, in a room in an unknown location, several people sit in a small room with a couch, a small table, and several white boards and papers littering the table. Sitting on the couch was a blonde woman with Heart shaped sunglasses and a Scruffy man with messy stubble on his face and long shaggy hair. On the tables sat a woman with black hair tied in two buns with a long dress with the slot on the side going all the way up to her thigh, and standing in the corner was a short and tone man with a beanie covering his eyes with long brown straight hair going almost to his neck. In the middle was Brock Bukowski, the man with the yellow eyes, humming bird and mice tattoos, and the beard cut into stripes along his chin.

"Have any of you heard from Guy Darling?" Bukowski said in his usual deep calm voice to the rest of the people in the room, but everyone shook their heads. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out a beer, and began to drink it while continuing to walk around the room.

"Now, one of you did something I specifically told you not to do." Bukowski said, his calm tone starting to have a hint of frustration. "I wanted to talk to Waylon and clear it up, but he seemingly killed Guy trying to get away from doing that."

Bukowski's attention quickly turned to the woman with the black hair with buns. "From what I could gather looking at the body, it was you, wasn't it Dwele?"

Dwele stood up quickly, sweat starting to form on her face. "He ran away from us, and he did so after failing a mission sir." She said, "He had to be punished, didn't he?"

Bukowski looked at Dwele for a moment before speaking. "Yes, he did do those things, so I suppose punishment was in order."

Bukowski finished his beer, before approaching Dwele. He swung the empty bottle at Dwele's head, shattering the bottle and sending Dwele to the ground. He got down on his knee's and began to talk to Dwele.

"However, didn't I specifically say to keep his daughter out of this?" He said, "You just killed an innocent child, and now Waylon probably thinks I did it."

"I'm sorry." Dwele said, holding the bloody cuts on her head. "He killed Guy, doesn't that mean something?"

"So what? Are we children in a playground trying to get even with the bully?" Bukowski said, "If there needs to be punishment, I will do so. Do you understand?"

Dwele nodded while on the ground. Everyone else in the room was completely quiet, silently watching the ordeal.

"We shouldn't resort to murder as punishment. If you wanted to get back at him, kill him, and not an innocent child. We are better than this." Bukowski finished, "If you do something like this again, I will not be happy Dwele."

Everyone slowly began to get comfortable again, and resumed the conversations they were having.

"Annie." Bukowski said, turning his attention to the blonde woman with the heart sunglasses. "I need you to make sure that nobody finds the body. If you see anybody from the Ladies or The Night Watch, let me know. Don't be a loose cannon and kill needlessly like this one." He said while pointing at Dwele, who was finally standing up again.

Dreamboat Annie nodded, and she stood up and left the room.

"And as for Waylon, leave him alone." Bukowski said, "His daughter is already dead, so if he wants to leave, let him."

Bukowski went and got another beer from the fridge, and he also left the room.

===To=Be=Continued===


	34. Chapter 34, Woman in the Photograph

Fun Fact: The Night Watch, the Ladies of the Road, and the Larks in Aspic are all named after king crimson songs as a small nod to Part 5

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The Next Day

"Damnit Rocko, did you drink the last coke in the fridge?" Rick said

"I didn't see a name on it." Rocko replied with a mischievous grin.

Rocko, Rick, Maria, and Shizuka were all sitting in the Night Watch's quarters, which was more of a small little apartment with the main room being set up with plenty of couches and a fridge for comfort. They were waiting on Harold before they began to discuss their next move on finding Joseph's killer, which they recently decided that it must have been a member of the Larks in Aspic. They were in luck however, as Harold seemed to have learned some new information from Josuke, however nobody else in the Night Watch was made aware of this info yet.

"I've been meaning to ask." Shizuka said after Rocko chugged the rest of the can of coke in front of Rick. "Who exactly are the Larks in Aspic? We never really talked to much about them besides that they're a gang you guys have been keeping an eye on."

"You mean like what they do?" Rocko said, holding her stomach in pain after chugging a whole can of soda. "We don't really know what they do, to be honest."

Shizuka raised her eyebrow, "You mean you guys don't know what they're trying to do with these murders?"

"Well we know now that they're after the drug." Rick interrupted, "But yeah, besides that we have no idea who these people are or what they were trying to do."

"We can spend all day trying to come up with answers." Rocko said, "But really their activities and this drug are all we have to go off of."

"The thing I wanna know is why they even need the drug." Rick said, "The Larks are all stand users, so why would they need a drug that gives a stand?"

Shizuka looked down, thinking what she would do with such a drug when she's already a stand user. "Maybe they want to recruit new members?" She suggested

"It's possible, but we can only speculate right now." Rick finished

"Or maybe they want a new stand?" Maria interjected

Everyone looked at Maria, who was sitting with her phone in her hand with a smile on her face.

"That's not possible." Rick said, "People can only have one stand."

"We didn't think a drug giving people stands was possible either." Maria replied

"That's true." Rick said, "But having another stand is impossible, Jotaro said so himself."

"What does Jotaro know? He never uses his stand anyway." Maria said with a smug tone in her voice.

After this exchange, everyone went back to what they were doing, whether that would be stuffing their face with food from the fridge like Rocko, or checking their phones or trying to piece things together with the case.

"When was the last time the Larks did something on the same scale as the aquarium?" Shizuka said

Rocko thought for a moment before speaking. "I don't think they've done something at that scale for a long time, months even."

"Try a week ago." Said Harold Land, who was descending down the stairs.

"Hey Harold." Everyone in the room said after one another.

"So, we have a lot to work with from the information I got from Higashikata." Harold said, lighting his cigar and putting on his reading glasses. He pulled out a small pocket notebook that was almost full with every page, the handwriting being too small for any normal person to easily read.

"So, we can confirm that Joseph's death was in the hand of one of the members of the Larks." Harold said

"We thought so." Rocko said

"Hm, but we're lucky for a change." Harold said, "We have a lot of information about the killer, but we don't have a single name."

Harold caught everyone up to speed with the story he heard from Yorke at Karma Police Lane, including a description of the apparent killer, and the event that went down there a week ago.

"And here's another thing." Harold said, "Apparently our killer also took out Caroline."

Everyone was surprised, as everyone thought that Caroline was still alive, since the Ladies of the Road were still active in some places. When Maria heard this, her eyes widened and she looked away from her phone and at Harold. "A week ago?" she said

"Yes, she was killed a week ago at Karma Police Lane." Harold replied

Maria quickly stood up and walked to a short file cabinet that sat next to the fridge. After a bit of digging, she pulled out one of the files and shuffled through it before walking back to the table everyone was gathered around and threw the file onto it.

"Caroline was in Boston a week ago." Maria said, pulling out a picture of Caroline sitting at a small table in a cafe. "This picture was taken only 5 days ago by a member of the Boston branch."

"That's impossible, she was killed a week ago." Harold said

"Are you sure?" Maria asked

"Yes, we even looked inside the trash can from Yorke's story. While it was hard to identify due to rot, it was definitely her."

Harold picked up the picture and carefully looked at it. The woman in the picture was wearing the same attire as described in Yorke's story, and even had the same rose sitting on top of her head.

"Do you have any more pictures Maria?" Harold said still looking at the picture.

Maria went back to the file cabinet and dug through it, until she found another file that had more pictures of Caroline, including ones before she was killed. She set the pictures on the table, about 4 in total, all of which were Caroline either walking through the city or when she's sitting somewhere.

"This one is at the airport here in town." Harold said, pointing at one of the photos of Caroline walking through the airport.

"That one was taken only 2 days ago." Maria said

Harold and Maria looked at each other. "How is this possible?" Harold asked

"Well however it happened, Caroline looks alive in this picture, doesn't she?" Maria said

"I hate to interrupt, but there's a reason why we're all here Harold." Rick interrupted, grabbing a knock off coke out of the fridge. "While you and Maria figure that out, we need to know what we should do about the Larks."

"There's really not much we can do right now." Harold said, "We have no names that we can tie to the killer, so all we can do right now is keep an eye out for anybody who matches the description. Besides, we don't now where their hideout is, so it's not like we can just approach them."

Harold looked again at the pictures before speaking once more. "But if these pictures are to believed, than the validity of that description and that whole story might be up in the air. I don't get it, we saw Caroline's body that matched with Yorke's description."

Harold continued to look at the photographs. "I'd like to go and do a little research, find anything about these pictures and Caroline that I can. Until then, you guys keep an eye out for any Larks."

Harold picked up the files that Maria gave him and left. Maria sat back down and went back to her phone.

"Hey Rocko, it's your turn to pick up the pizza." Rick said, "And don't start eating it before you get back again."

"Can I order pepp-" Rocko said before getting interrupted

"Pepperoni and bacon, yes." Rick said

Rocko smiled before jumping up and walking out of the room.

"Do we get pizza every time we meet up here?" Shizuka asked

"Eh, it's kind of a tradition at this point." Rick responded

"Who pays for it?" Shizuka asked

"Don't worry about it, or you'll be paying for it." Rick replied.

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It was a nice and sunny day in New York, just like the previous day. The city was bustling with activity, and Rocko was sitting at a small table waiting for the pizza to be finished. Everyone was happily conversing with friends and loved ones, and kids were running around. A woman ordered a single slice of pizza from the very place that Rocko was waiting at, and walked by Rocko preparing to leave. However, the woman quickly noticed the tattoo of the light house on Rocko's neck.

"I like your tattoo." She said

Rocko looked at the woman, and held her neck

"Oh thank you." She replied with a smile

"Where did you get it done?" The woman asked

"Um, I had it done at home." Rocko replied

The woman took a seat across from Rocko. She was wearing a short white tee shirt with the word "Dreamboat" in pink lettering in the middle and a brown leather coat, short enough to where you could see a bit of her stomach. She was wearing a red skirt with black tights, and an old pair of red sneakers. Her hair was a golden blonde which curled and sat on her shoulders and back. Covering her eyes was a pair of sunglasses, with each lense being shaped like a heart.

"Have you ever been by the ocean here?" The woman asked "It's just gorgeous, especially the light houses. Is that what your tattoo's supposed to be?"

"I've been there, but no, my tattoo's a bit special." Rocko replied

"Ah, well aren't they all?" The woman said while holding a finger to her chin. "I moved here just so I can see the oceans, I swear I must walk out there every day. Especially the Beaches in Manhattan, ah its so pretty" The woman said while putting her hands to her cheeks

"Where are you from?" Rocko asked

"Well, I was born in Seattle, but moved here just a few years ago. Where are you from?" The woman said

"Oh, I lived here all my life." Rocko replied

"OH?" The woman said, leaning over the table towards Rocko, "Do you like it here?"

"Eh, I can't complain." Rocko said with a smile on her face

"What's your name?" The woman asked

"My name's Rocko, you?"

"You can call me Annie."

===To=Be=Continued===


	35. Chapter 35, Her Name Was Dreamboat Annie

Stand Fact: Being a big fan of the Matrix, Guy Darling often does stuff that Neo would do, including jumping off of walls, doing flips and even dodging bullets. However, he never got to use a gun himself, meaning he sadly couldn't fulfill that fantasy.

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"Well, it's very nice to meet you Annie." Rocko said

Annie put her hands to her cheeks again. "Aw, its very nice to meet you too sweet pea."

Annie stared into Rocko's eyes for a while, long enough to where Rocko began to get a little uncomfortable. After a moment, Annie suddenly rested her hand on top of Rocko's hand. Rocko swiftly pulled her hand away, causing Annie's fingernail to scratch her hand, and leaving a scratch that was slightly bleeding.

"Uh." Rocko said looking at Annie while holding her hand.

"Oh god, I'm sorry." Annie said, "I got a little carried away, are you bleeding?"

"Oh, a little bit, but it's okay I guess." Rocko said, getting progressively more uncomfortable around this strange woman.

"Rocko?" A man from behind the counter at the pizza place yelled out. Rocko raised her hand and picked up the two pizza's she ordered for the group back at the hideout.

"Hungry?" Annie said with a playful smile on her face

"Very, but it's not all for me." Rocko chuckled, "It was my turn to pick up the pizza."

"Oh, you're having a party?" Annie asked

"You could say that."

"Can I come to the party?" Annie said with a cheery voice.

"Uh, my friends aren't too welcoming to new people, but I totally would." Rocko replied

"Aw, can I at least walk back there with you?"

"Uh." Rocko said, trying to think of an excuse to get away from Annie, "I think I should go alone, don't want to get too sidetracked, you know?"

Annie tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we'd have too much fun together, but I have people waiting on me." Rocko said with a fake smile

"Well, let me at least give you my phone number." Annie said, pulling a sharpie out of her pocket. She skipped over to Rocko and wrote her phone number on Rocko's arm

"Uh thanks, I'll see you around I guess."

"Yep!" Annie said, walking away from Rocko.

They went their separate ways, and Rocko began to walk back to the hideout.

"What a weirdo." Rocko thought to herself, "What was up with that hand touching? That woman definitely has a screw loose somewhere."

After a bit, Rocko noticed an odd smell. She looked around to try and detect the smell, but she noticed that it seemed to come off her shirt. She pulled the collar of her shirt to her nose and smelled it.

"Did I put perfume on this morning?" She thought to herself. "I don't remember putting any on."

Rocko shrugged it off as her own forgetfulness, she probably put it on this morning and forgot she did. It was odd though, she rarely ever puts on perfume unless she's dressing formally for a special occasion. But it was also strange, that was the only thing she could smell. The smell of the pizza wasn't there, all she could smell was the usual city smells of smog and exhaust, and perfume.

"WOAH LADY, THE SIGN IS RED!" A man yelled from behind Rocko.

She quickly turned and saw Annie crossing the road when the walk sign was clearly red. A car was quickly approaching Annie. Rocko quickly set the pizza's on a table and ran to Annie, and pushed her out of the way. The cars behind the one that nearly ran Annie over stopped abruptly and began to honk their horns.

"Oh dear." Annie said, "I didn't realize the sign was red, I'm sorry you had to do that Rocko."

Rocko simply rubbed her hand down her face in frustration and held out a hand to help Annie up. As Annie's hand grabbed onto Rocko's, Rocko felt another sharp pain in the back of her hand. Annie's fingernail once again dug across Rocko's hand. She let go of Annie's hand and held her hand, blood already flowing out of the small cut.

"Oh my." Annie said, "I'm so sorry, I have a bad habit of biting my fingernails, and they've gotten sharp and jagged."

Annie held her fingers towards Rocko, and sure enough, they were jagged and pointed, showing signs of compulsive biting.

"Look, it's fine. I'm going to go, okay?" Rocko said, "Watch where you're going next time."

"Will do." Annie said with a big smile on her face.

Rocko continued once again walking towards the hideout with the pizza in her hands.

"Please, just stay put." She thought to herself thinking about Annie. Rocko didn't know who this woman was, but she was starting to become a nuisance. Something else was odd however. Along with the smell of perfume, she swears she tastes something minty. It was almost like chewing gum, but Rocko knows for sure she didn't chew any gum recently.

"So where's this party at?" Annie said, Suddenly standing behind Rocko

"Uh." Rocko said, once again keeping a fake smile. "Well, I gotta run a few more errands before I get back to the party, I wouldn't want to bore you with those."

"You picked up warm pizza before running errands?" Annie said with a skeptical look on her face

"Well, I'm dropping off the pizza, then running my errands." Rocko lied

"let me walk with you to where you wanna drop off the pizza, and I can run errands WITH you." Annie said hopping on her toes and smiling.

"Ugh, I really think I should go alone, don't you have somewhere you need to go?" Rocko said

"Not really." Annie said, "I'm just walking around, looking for something fun to do. Your party sounds fun."

While talking to Annie, Rocko noticed that Annie was chewing gum.

"Uh, what kind of gum are you chewing?" Rocko asked

"Spearmint. Why do you ask?" Annie said, putting her finger on her chin.

"Oh, just wondering." Rocko asked, starting to feel sketched out by Annie.

"Look, I'm going to go, alone. I don't mean to sound rude, but please leave me alone."

"Okay!" Annie said with the same big smile on her face. "Can I at least have a hug?"

"Uh." Rocko said, but before she could find a polite way to say no, Annie already had her arms wrapped around Rocko. Rocko felt Annie's fingernail cut the back of her neck, and she pushed Annie away.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." Annie said, "I swear I don't mean to, I'll make sure to cut my fingernails before we hang out again." She said putting her finger to her cheek, smiling.

"We didn't hang out to begin with." Rocko said

"But, we just hung out, didn't we?"

"Sure." Rocko said, just trying to get away from Annie.

Rocko for the third time began to walk away from Annie. She was hoping that would be the last time she would ever see her, but she wasn't holding her breath.

"HEY, WATCH OUT!" A woman yelled from behind Rocko

"You're joking." Rocko thought to herself, before looking behind her. Of course, she saw Annie once again crossing the street while the walk sign was red. However, Rocko noticed something that made her stop in her tracks. Annie's tights were torn around her calf, and there was a tattoo. The tattoo was of a Droplet falling onto a dead bird. She was a Lark. The tights must have gotten cut when she was pushed to the ground, and Rocko is just now noticing the tattoo.

Rocko was conflicted. She couldn't just let Annie get hit by a car, but she was technically the enemy. She must have known Rocko was a Night Watch the whole time. She weighed her options. On one hand, she would be saving her, but she would probably find another excuse to get her attention. On the other hand, she could possibly die if she gets hit by the car. At the very least, if she lives she can probably get information out of her.

After thinking hard about it, Rocko made her decision. She was going to stand firm, and let Annie get hit by the car. This probably won't kill her, as the car was only going 30 down the street. She can probably carry her back to the Hideout, and the Night Watch can get some information out of her. Annie was definitely a stand user, as all the larks are, so this will also avoid a fight. Rocko stood her ground and stared on as a car quickly approached Annie

Annie looked over to Rocko, her smile became more sinister, and her eyes settled into a smug look.

"I thought so."

The car impacted Annie, and sent her flying. At the same time, Rocko dropped the pizza and fell to the ground. The side of her body was suddenly in incredible pain, almost like the entire left side of her body was crushed. She howled in pain laying on the ground, sweat quickly forming on her face. Annie, without a sign of any sort of pain, bounced up like nothing happened.

===To=Be=Continued===


	36. Dreamboat Annie's Little Queen (Part 1)

Stand Fact: The complete nature of the Highwaymen are unknown. Tt has several abilities and perks that even Waylon Cash isn't aware of.

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"CHRIST LADY, ARE YOU OK?" A man stepping out of a car yelled. He looked at Annie, who he had just hit with his car. Annie simply stood up, popped her neck, and looked at the man with a sweet and gentle smile.

"I'm ok!" She yelled, giving a thumbs up.

"What about that lady over there?" The man replied

"Oh, she's ok, she's just going through some things right now."

After Annie got back up, she skipped over to Rocko, who was lying in intense pain. Rocko tried to crawl away into a nearby alley with her arm, but it was quickly stomped on by an old pair of Red sneakers. She looked up to see Dreamboat Annie, her kind and sweet smile replaced with a sinister and evil glare.

"It's a shame, I almost let you go." Annie said, "I was starting to think that maybe you just had a tattoo that looked similar to the Night Watch."

"I... don't know what you're talking about." Rocko said, trying to lie understanding that she's at a clear disadvantage.

"Don't play stupid sweet heart." Annie replied, "The moment you saw my tattoo, you decided it would be better to let me get hit?"

Rocko smiled. "I don't know what ability you have me under, but it won't matter."

As she said this, Dirty Harry suddenly appeared, and swiped its leg underneath Annie. Annie flew sideways from the leg sweep, and Dirty Harry quickly threw a punch from above, slamming Annie's head into the pavement. During the whole time, she didn't lose her sinister smile, but Rocko didn't care.

"Now, you're under my own abil-"

Before Rocko could finish her sentence, she felt an intense pain on both sides of her head, feeling like her head is being crushed. With how her ability works, Dirty Harry's ability is now null, and Annie won't be reversed. Dirty Harry kept her fist on top of Annie's head, pushing it further and further into the pavement. Every time it would do that though, Rocko's pain would only intensify, and eventually she was forced to stop.

"May I get up now?" Annie said, looking at Dirty Harry's fist. Eventually, Dirty Harry disappeared, and Rocko held onto her head, rolling in pain.

"I'll allow you to stand up now." Annie said, "We have a party to get to, don't we? You're going to take me to your little get together, or I'll keep hurting you"

Rocko had no choice but to follow her demands and stand up. She grabbed the pizza's and began to walk north, down the sidewalk. As soon as she started walking, Annie kicked her shin into the corner of a building, instantly cracking it and splattering blood all over the concrete wall. Rocko screamed in pain and fell to the ground once again.

"You think I'm stupid?" Annie said, "You were walking south just a second ago, don't think you can trick me so easily."

Rocko continued to hold onto her leg in pain. Even though Rocko was the one in pain, Annie's leg was bruised and gushing blood, and even showed signs of being broken. Yet with all this, Annie still stood and moved around like nothing was the matter.

"Now, lets go South, what do you say?" Annie said putting her finger to her chin.

Rocko silently nodded and stood back up, and limped very slowly.

"Before we go anywhere, you'll have to do something for me." Rocko said, long breaths between some of her words.

"Who are you to be making requests?" Annie laughed, "You're already this bloodied up, don't tempt me to finish you off sweet pea."

"If you kill me now, you won't see where the Night Watch's hideout is." Rocko said

Annie raised her eyebrow, putting her finger to her chin. "You have a good point."

She held her hands to her side, closed her eyes, and looked down.

"Alright, fine. What do you want?"

"Show me your stand." Rocko said, "And tell me what it does."

Annie smiled, "Very well, but its a shame. The whole surprise was ruined, I was hoping you'd eventually piece it together, but I guess there's no harm, now that you're already in it's ability."

After she said this, a figure started to appear between Rocko and Annie. The figure was blue and very slender, and had a feminine figure to its upper body. Its lower body was completely gone, with just a smoky tail below its belt, making it resemble a Genie. Its body was decorated with several hearts that were a darker blue than the rest of its body, and its head had a large heart shaped hole going straight through the center. On its fingers were strings tied to it and Rocko's wounds, and the other hand had strings tied from it to Annie's nose, mouth, and fingers. On the fingernails of Annie's stand were small symbols, these being eyes, a mouth, an ear, a hand, and a nose. The strings on Annie's side was tied to the correct parts of her body with the fingers. On its body was a red line going across hand to hand, connecting it to the strings.

"This is Little Queen." Annie said, "And it lets me give my senses to you."

"What, what do you mean by that?" Rocko said

"Here, let me give you an example."

Annie went over to a garbage can near the entrance to a small store, and pulled out an old rotten piece of fruit. She put it to her nose and began to smell it. As soon as she did this, Rocko began to feel sick, and began to gag at the putrid smell of the fruit. They were a good 10 feet away from each other, so there was no way Rocko would have been able to smell it.

"It gets better." Annie said. She put the rotten fruit in her mouth, and began to chew it. Rocko seized up, and felt the urge to vomit. She could taste the mold and bacteria on the fruit, and couldn't stop coughing, as if her body was trying to reject it.

"I've already demonstrated the touch thing enough." Annie said with her mouth full of rotten fruit. She spat out the chunks of fruit and began to approach Rocko

"Having my sense of touch is the real kicker." Annie said, "As you have seen, any pain I experience comes right back to you. As it stands right now, I'm completely invincible, so I wouldn't advise trying to attack me again."

"What's gonna happen when you let me go?" Rocko said, "All that pain from your head, car injury, and that broken leg will come right back to you."

"You're right." Annie replied, "But you don't think I can afford a hospital bill?"

Rocko nodded. "And how do I escape from it?"

"There isn't a way to escape." Annie said, "And even if there was, you really think I would tell you?"

Rocko smiled and had a light chuckle. "Fair enough."

Suddenly, Dirty Harry appeared once again, and grabbed Rocko by the arm and threw her at a water cooler that seemed to have fallen from a window high in a top floor apartment. When she was on top of it, Dirty Harry quickly touched it. The water cooler began to fly up, taking Rocko with it. Annie noticed this and began to run, and rammed her head into a concrete wall. Rocko quickly lost consciousness, but Dirty Harry was able to quickly grab her arm and chuck her on top of the building. Rocko lied on top of the building, unconscious.

Annie quickly stood up and looked at the building.

"Go ahead, try and run away, but you won't get far." She said

She walked over to a local grocery that was only a few meters away, and picked up a knife that was being sold. She raised her legs, pulled her feet into her view, and cut the Achilles Tendons on both feet. She was still able to walk, but it was still tricky, even for Annie, since her legs still felt very flimsy after cutting the tendons.

"I can wait patiently, I'll hear your scream of pain when you wake up."

===To=Be=Continued===


	37. Dreamboat Annie's Little Queen (Part 2)

Dirty Harry: With one touch from It's hand, it will cause a person or object to reverse its actions until either Rocko stops the ability, or Rocko feels any pain.

Destructive: C

Speed: B

Range: C (3 meters max)

Persistence: B

Precision: B

Development Potential: B

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Rocko awoke with an incredible pain near her feet, and let out a loud yell. She felt around her legs, and found that it was her Achilles Tendons that were in pain. It felt like they've been cut clean, and tried as she will, she couldn't stand up.

"G..Give me a hand, will you?" She said, her voice raspy from all pain she was in from Annie's ability. Dirty Harry appeared and picked up Rocko and carried her arm over its shoulder. She reached into her pocket with her other hand and grabbed her cellphone, and attempted to call Shizuka. However, she felt something on her arm, almost a burning sensation. Eventually, it felt like her whole arm was on fire, and she flailed it through the air in attempt to put out a fire that wasn't there. She dropped her phone in the process of doing this, and she heard a quiet laugh behind her.

"Good morning sunshine." Said Annie, holding a match to her gasoline covered hand. Her arm was in flames, and she didn't seem to put any effort into putting it out. Rocko was able to put together that Annie simply took the stairs to the top of the building while she was out.

"Who were you going to call there?" Annie asked

"Someone to come and beat your ass." Rocko replied

"Oh sweetie, don't undersell yourself like that." Annie said, "You're fully capable of beating me up."

Annie walked over and picked up Rocko's phone. Only then did she flail her arm to put out the fire that was almost to her chest.

"But the simple truth is that there is nothing you can do against Little Queen's ability."

Rocko smiled after Annie said this. "Give me a few more minutes, and I'll figure out a way."

Annie smiled as well. "I'm rooting for you honey."

"I can still hear and see with my own eyes and ears just fine." Rocko said, "Meaning you can only take 3 of my senses at once."

"Very nice." Annie said, "See, you don't need any help, you're doing great all on your own."

Rocko's smile began to fade. "How am I going to get around doing this." She thought to herself. "Annie's ability is truly terrifying, and if I try and hit her, the pain from her ability will nullify Dirty Harry's ability before I can even use it."

Rocko and Annie stood at a stand still. They both looked at each other, Annie having a sweet and innocent smile on her face, while Rocko is staring with cold indifference. Suddenly, Dirty Harry flew out and readied a punch to Annie's face.

"That won't work." Annie said, "You know what's about to happen."

"You're right, I do." Rocko replied.

Dirty Harry flew through the air towards Annie, but just as its fist was about to plant itself into Annie's face, it stopped. Dirty Harry then pointed a finger at Annie's face, and gently touched her nose.

"I don't need to hurt you to activate my ability." Rocko said.

Suddenly, Annie's whole body felt numb. Without her control, she held out her hand to light herself, but she was missing a match and wasn't able to start a fire. She then started to walk backwards, and back down the stairs of the building.

"Alright." Rocko said, "To be honest, I'll probably only be able to keep you under my ability for only a moment, as I'm sure you'll somehow get hurt again. What a bizarre fight, I'm actually hoping you don't get hurt."

Annie went further down the stairs, and out of Rocko's sight. She looked around for a possible getaway. All she could see were dumpsters and trashcans in the alleys below. However, she noticed that one of the dumpsters was full of bagged garbage. There was no telling what kind of garbage was in those bags, but landing on them was her only chance of getting of the roof without crossing paths with Annie, as she definitely would have something up her sleeve.

Dirty Harry picked up Rocko over its shoulder and hurled her over to the dumpster. As she flew through the air, she noticed something terrible. The bags in the dumpster had wires, glass, sharp metal cans, things that would hurt on impact. She tried to stop herself mid air with Dirty Harry, but it was too late. Rocko closed her eyes in anticipation of being punctured like a pin cushion, and she tensed up her body. She slammed back first into sharp glass and metal, piercing her several times in the back, neck, and arms.

However, she felt nothing.

Rocko opened her eyes and looked around. She lifted her arms up, and there were indeed shards of glass stuck in her arms, blood pouring everywhere.

"I... I don't feel any of this." Rocko said, "Have I been hurt so much already that my body has gone numb? No it can't be, Annie was able to hurt me not even a minute ago."

Rocko, although confused of her lack of pain, laid back and thought about her situation.

"This feels familiar, doesn't it?" Rocko thought to herself, "Being up against something that I can't do anything about. This reminds me of my fight with Shizuka. I had the complete upper hand in that fight, yet she was able to come out on top. How did you do it Shizuka, I need that advice more than ever."

Rocko checked her watch, and saw that it was 1:30pm.

"Annie must have cut my Achilles right when I was knocked out." Rocko thought to herself. "I first met her at around 1 pm, so I must have been out for at least 30 minutes. That gives me half and hour at the very most to get back to the others."

Rocko looked around, and tried to think of a way to move around without the use of her feet. She was lucky, as a miracle happened in her favor. She noticed someone yelling, and a car came speeding backwards down the road. A large man came running for his car, he must have forgot to put the parking breaks on. Dirty Harry grabbed Rocko and launched her towards the car. She landed on the hood of the car just as it passed the alley, and Dirty Harry quickly touched it. The car's momentum suddenly shifted in the opposite direction, and she was speeding up the road. The man who was chasing the car simply looked on in disbelief.

"Ok, I don't know how far this will take me, but I can figure out the rest whenever this car stops. This must be how Shizuka beat me, with luck."

Suddenly, Rocko felt a sharp pain to her forehead. As soon as she felt this, the car stopped and slowly rolled back down the street.

"WHAT?" Rocko yelled. Before she knew it, the car took a slight swerve to the right, and crashed into a building. She was right back where she started, at the pizza place.

"That was clever Rocko." Annie said, "But I knew about your ability before I knocked you out cold."

Rocko turned her head to see Annie, slowly walking out of the building. She seemed unscratched, but something was different. Her arms were shaking, and her fists were clenched. She had a slight limp in her step, and her voice cracked as she spoke. "Was she in pain?" Rocko thought to herself.

===To=Be=Continued===

Holy smokes, this story reached 4000 views!

Thanks everyone for supporting and reading my story, and I'm truly thankful for all of it.

I suppose something special is in order, so I'll answer any questions you guys have, any of them. (Except questions that would result in spoilers, obviously.)

Thanks again everyone. -Chem


	38. Dreamboat Annie's Little Queen (Part 3)

Stand Fact: Even if it's simply a tear under your eye, any sign of unhappiness will trigger Beast of Burden. A simple twitch of the smile is enough to have someone feel a tug on their leg.

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"Shit." Annie thought to herself, "She must see that I'm in pain from her falling into that glass and metal."

Annie stood a few meters away from Rocko. She's visibly shaking, her hands clenched, and her teeth are clenched.

"She can't find out the true nature of Little Queen, or else it's over for me."

"You're in pain, aren't you?" Rocko said, pointing at Annie, "How?"

Annie brainstormed a possible lie that she could tell to Rocko. Sweat began to form on her face, and her eye began to twitch. Then, it struck her. It was a flimsy lie, but it was better than nothing.

"Using Little Queen puts a strain on my body." Annie said, "It's simply the strain, I can keep this going for a bit longer though, so I suggest you take me to your hideout fast."

Rocko looked at Annie, but after a moment, she nodded and looked down.

"That must be inconvenient, a stand that puts strain on your body." She said

"Yeah, but it's what I have to work with." Annie replied

"But still, its a terrifying ability, so that strain would be worth it." Rocko said

Annie nodded in agreement. However, a smile formed on Rocko's face, and she looked up triumphantly at Annie.

"To bad that's complete bullshit." Rocko said, smiling and pointing at Annie. "When I fell into that dumpster full of glass and sharp metal, I didn't feel a thing. Yet here you are, limping and gasping."

Annie began to panic internally again, sweat falling from her forehead and her hands began to shake more. Not from pain, but in fear of getting found out.

"Your ability doesn't just give me your senses. It trades our senses, so you have MY senses right now, don't you?" Rocko said.

Annie was shocked by this revelation. Rocko had just discovered the true nature of Little Queen, and this could mean a lot of trouble for Annie. However, Annie's worried face turned into a shaky smile. Just because Rocko discovered Little Queen's true ability doesn't mean the fight is lost, it just means there needs to be a change in strategy.

"Very nice." Annie said, "You found out the secret I was keeping from you. Yes, we traded senses, so I can smell, taste, and feel what you do. However, don't think that you won the fight just like that."

Annie pulled out the small knife that she took from the small grocery store, and lunged it in her hand. The pain sent Rocko to the floor, and Annie began to laugh maniacally.

"You won't win this fight. You learning my full ability only means I have to start playing dirty. I'll hurt you so much you'll be begging me to take me to your hideout."

Rocko began to reach for the hand that was stabbed. Dirty Harry appeared and was about to throw a punch at Rocko's hand in an attempt to make Annie drop the knife.

"No you don't." Annie yelled, plunging the Knife into her other hand. When she did this, Dirty Harry's punch stopped, and Rocko reeled in pain again, holding onto her other hand. Annie continued to plunge the knife into both hands, switching the knife to the other hand each time.

"You won't move from that spot Rocko." Annie said, "The only time I'll stop is if I hear you say you'll take me to the hideout."

Rocko's hands were in incredible pain, so much so that she couldn't even move her body.

"Shizuka, how did you beat me." She thought to herself, "I can't do anything right now, how were you able to escape. If it wasn't luck, than what was it?"

"DO YOU GIVE UP?" Annie yelled, a maniacal smile was on her face.

Rocko's face had no emotion, and her skin was pale from all the pain Annie was inflicting on her.

"It'll take a lot more than that to make me crack." Rocko said, "You might as well just kill me. I'd rather die than give up."

Rocko looked up at Annie, her eyes are full of triumph and determination.

"However, killing me won't be so easy."

Dirty Harry appeared, and instead of a fist, his hand was an open palm. Annie tried stabbing her hands some more, but Rocko was keeping her resolve this time. Dirty Harry's open palm began to shoot towards Rocko's wrist. When Dirty Harry's finger began to impact Rocko's wrist, it's fingers cleaved perfectly through it, taking Rocko's hand off of her arm."

"I realized something while fighting you Annie." Rocko said, not even a second after cutting her own hand off. "I was in a fight where my enemy had no way of beating me, yet she did. I realize now that she didn't beat me with luck or cheap tactics, she beat me with incredible resolve."

Annie screamed in horror and pain, and immediately collapsed onto the ground. She held her hand while continuing to scream. Without feeling in her other hand, she won't be able to stab her hands anymore. She was already losing a lot of blood, so she couldn't stab herself anywhere else without the risk of dying from blood loss. Rocko truly created an advantage out of nothing.

"And you better listen real good Annie." Rocko said, "It's that same resolve that I learned from Shizuka that's going to take you out."

Annie heard this, and stood up. She threw her leg into a metal poll, leaving an audible cracking sound. Rocko reeled in pain, but she didn't scream, and she kept her determined face. Dirty Harry quickly picked her up, and threw her at Annie. As soon as they passed her, Dirty Harry quickly grabbed Rocko's phone out of Annie's pocket.

"Call Josuke, quickly." Rocko said to Dirty Harry. Within a fraction of a second, Dirty Harry quickly dialed Josuke's number, and the phone rang.

"I DON'T THINK SO!" Annie yelled, slamming her head into a glass table, shattering it. Rocko shook with the feeling of glass cutting her face, but once again, she didn't lose her resolve.

"Hello?" A voice said over the phone

"Josuke, I need you to come to the Fashion Nugget, the Pizza place, quickly."

"What? What happened?" Josuke replied

"I don't have time, hurry."

"It'll take me half an hour to get there."

"That's fine." Rocko replied

After this exchange, Rocko hung up. Annie ran and kicked the phone out of Rocko's hand.

"You piece of shit." Annie said, anger and defeat painting on her face. She quickly reeled back and threw a kick into Rocko's stomach, only to feel it in her own stomach right after. Rocko smiled and chuckled

"You dumbass." Rocko said. Laughing at Annie forgetting her own ability. Annie wasn't laughing however, as she quickly took her other hand and slammed it on a piece of glass that was still facing up from the table. It effortlessly cut through her hand, but not quite cutting it off. Rocko felt this, and let out a quick yell, but other than that, the same face of determination was still there.

Dirty Harry quickly picked up Rocko, and reeled back. After a bit of aiming, Dirty Harry sent Rocko with a mighty throw through the window of the small Grocery store. Annie felt the shards of glass cutting everywhere on her body, but also the impact of crashing into isles and the ground. However, this was far from the worst Rocko has thrown at her, and she didn't fall to the ground. However, she felt something odd, a weird tingling on her tongue. This tingling soon turned into a very strong burning sensation, and eventually it felt like her whole mouth and throat were on fire. Her stomach felt this way too, and she felt to the ground, feeling sick.

"What the hell are you doing in there?" Annie said

She stood up and slowly limped to the store, and she saw Rocko eating something. She was taking handfuls of small shriveled up vegetables and shoving it into her mouth. After seeing the bag, she knew what she was eating.

California reapers. A whole bag of them.

"Tastes like shit, doesn't it?" Rocko said, a smile on her face.

"I'M DONE WITH YOU." Annie yelled, "YOU PISS ME THE HELL OFF, THIS WILL FINISH YOU."

Annie ran towards the wall with her head in front of her. Rocko saw this coming, and Dirty Harry quickly picked her up again. This time, Dirty Harry was aiming for the street. A car was coming by, and Dirty Harry was timing the throw. Once it was confident, it lunged Rocko towards the car. Annie was only feet away from the wall, attempting to bash her head and knock Rocko out once more. However, it was too late. Rocko hit the hood of a car, crushing some of the bones in her body.

Annie screamed in pain, and she fell to the ground before she could hit her head. She lied there, motionless, but still breathing. Dirty Harry quickly grabbed Rocko and set her back on the sidewalk. There they laid, Annie and Rocko, only a meter away from each other. Oddly enough, Rocko noticed that Annie was beginning to breath heavily, her chest quickly spasming. After a moment, a chuckle was heard from Annie, and this quickly turned into joyful laughter.

"What the hell are we doing." Annie laughed, "Beating the shit out of ourselves."

Rocko couldn't help it, and she started to break into laughter as well. Eventually, these two people who were just trying to kill each other are now sharing a laugh. They laughed for a good minute, their faces starting to turn red, and Rocko holding her stomach from the pain of laughing too much. This laugh was cut abruptly, however, as Annie picked up the knife that was only a foot away from her. She plunged it into herself, and pulled it to the side, leaving a deep and wide gash across her stomach.

===To=Be=Continued===


	39. Dreamboat Annie's Little Queen (Part 4)

Name: Dreamboat Annie

Stand: Little Queen

Appearance: Dreamboat Annie has long curly golden blonde hair blowing on down her back and resting on her shoulders. She wears a crop top shirt with the word "Dreamboat" written across it, and this under an unbuttoned brown jacket that is also a crop top. She wears a short skirt with black tights underneath, and a pair of old red sneakers. Wears a pair of sunglasses which lens are shaped like hearts.

Ability: Little Queen has the ability to switch the senses of Annie and a chosen target. These senses include sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Only 3 senses may be switched at a time, and Annie must create 3 wounds on the target before getting these senses switched. The size of the wound doesn't matter, as long as it breaks the skin.

Destructive: D

Speed: C

Range: A (infinite)

Persistence: A

Precision: N/A

Development Potential: D

Dreamboat Annie has an affinity for beaches and Hearts.

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Rocko screamed in pain from the gash across Annie's stomach. It was deep enough to definitely puncture organs, and blood poured out like a waterfall. Annie herself seemed to grow pale and limp, all the color leaving her body.

"How's this one?" Annie said, quietly and without much strength to her voice.

Rocko held her stomach, and even though blood wasn't pouring out at the same rate as Annie, her skin too began to grow pale.

"Are... you crazy?" Rocko said, the strength also leaving her voice. "You'll die from blood loss."

"You were driving me crazy." Annie said, "But you did show good resolve, maybe you'll survive this one."

"What do you mean, when you die, your stand ability will go away." Rocko said, "How will you win from this?

"Even though no blood is leaving your body, the feeling will make your brain think there is, and blood will stop circulating." Annie replied, "Mind over body."

"We'll both die, hurry, apply pressure to the cut." Rocko said, pointing at Annie's stomach.

"No thanks." Annie replied, "As long as I take you out, I don't mind calling this a tie."

Rocko continued to hold her stomach. She felt the life quickly leave her, and she could physically feel her intestines leaking onto the ground below, even though they physically weren't.

"No, it can't end this way." Rocko said

"I'm sure this wasn't the way you thought you would go, but this is how it ends for you Rocko." Annie said, "It was fun, and I like you a lot, but it ends here."

"No, I'm not going to let it end this way." Rocko said, the little bit of strength and resolve she had left painting her voice. "I'm not going to let you kill yourself."

"How noble." Annie said, "But its already done. Unless you have an ability to heal me, this can't be stopped."

"Shit, Josuke won't be here for another 25 minutes." Rocko thought to herself, "Dirty Harry can't do anything that would save her."

However, a crazy idea popped into Rocko's head, and she began to use her only hand and legs to slowly crawl towards Annie

"What are you doing Rocko?" Annie said, "Trying another attack?"

"Maybe." Rocko said, "This might kill you, but it's worth a try."

When Rocko approached Annie, Dirty Harry appeared and reeled back its hand. It's open hand flew across the small pool of blood Annie created from her wound. With a bloodied hand, Dirty Harry jabbed all 5 of its fingers into Annie's chest, but just shallow enough to where it didn't pierce her heart. Rocko felt a bit of pain, but she kept Dirty Harry's hand in Annie's chest until she couldn't feel the pain, then she used the ability. Dirty Harry pulled out its fingers gently enough to not cause further pain and stop the ability.

"What did you just do?" Annie said, "Did you try to finish me off there?"

"The opposite." Rocko said.

Suddenly, the pool of blood beneath Annie began to shimmer, and droplets formed and flew upwards into Annie's wound. Eventually, it turned into a waterfall again, and drained right up back to Annie. In time, all of the blood disappeared, flowing right back into Annie.

"I see, so you made all that blood return to my body." Annie said, "But I still have a lot of blood that isn't circulating, all that blood that returned is just going to congeal again, and stop the rest of my blood from flowing."

"I know." Rocko said, "That's why I didn't just make the blood on the ground flow backwards."

Annie's eyes widened. "Don't tell me."

"Yep." Rocko said, "All of the blood in your body is flowing backwards. This might cause issues if it goes on for too long, but for now it should keep you alive."

Annie busted into laughter. "You're really something Rocko." Annie said, "I really like you."

"I guess I'll take that compliment." Rocko said

However, after this exchange, Annie took her fingernails and dug it into her arm. Rocko felt this pain, and it nullified Dirty Harry's ability, causing Annie's blood to begin pouring out of her body.

"It's too bad your ability is this easy to counter." Annie said, "I'm sorry."

"I was hoping you forgot about that." Rocko said

"I did the same thing before, I banged my head against the wall before going upstairs to the roof." Annie said.

"I Thought so." Rocko replied

There they both laid, on the ground. Annie bleeding profusely, and Rocko trying her hardest to stop the flow of blood from leaving Annie's body. However, it was fruitless. Annie was losing too much blood too fast, and Dirty Harry's ability couldn't keep up. Annie would just hurt herself to nullify it's ability as soon as it was activated. Rocko eventually gave up, and succumbed to the numbness that was blanketing her body. Annie was almost grey, and her eyes were losing its shine. Rocko felt the same, her skin felt cold, and she lost all sensation of pain.

However, then she felt a sudden sharp and incredible pain to her leg, and heard a loud bang.

Rocko cried in pain, so much so that she couldn't turn and look at Annie. Instead she rolled over onto her stomach, trying to suppress the pain under her own weight.

"Stop your ability Annie." Said a voice that was all to familiar to Rocko

"What are you doing here?" Annie said in a panicked voice.

"I said, stop... your... ability." The voice responded

"What if I don't?" Annie said in a snarky tone

"Then I'll blow your brains out." The voice responded. "You knew damn well she was going to die first, and that you were going to live through this anyway."

"She was going to live?" Rocko thought to herself. "She knew that this whole time?"

"If I do, will you kill her and help me up?" Annie said

"Yeah, I will." The voice responded

Little Queen appeared and it wrapped the strings that were connected to it and Rocko around its hand. After it was firmly wrapped, it yanked on the strings, snapping them. Suddenly, Rocko felt all the color and life return to her body, but her mouth was on fire and her hand was experiencing phantom pain. However, she felt alive again, and she turned to see who was talking to Annie.

It was Waylon Cash, and he was helping Annie up by pulling her hand.

"YOU?" Rocko said, "What are you doing here?"

"Don't worry about it." Cash said

"Hm, so you didn't leave the gang after all." Annie said, "That's good to know, aside from you killing Guy."

Cash stayed quiet, and didn't respond to Annie's words

"Whatever, let's kill Rocko and get back to Brock."

However, this wasn't going to happen. As soon as Annie said this, Cash put his gun against Annie's other leg and fired a round. Annie cried in pain, but was still holding onto Cash's hand.

"Why did you do that?" Annie yelled

"Don't worry about it." He replied

Annie smiled, and pulled her hand out of Cash's, and scratching the palm. This left 3 bleeding scratches, and Little Queen quickly tied strings to Cash's wounds.

"YOU DUMBASS" Annie yelled. "You shouldn't have crossed me like that. Now YOU'RE going to die, and then I'll finish off Rocko."

Even while he was still standing, Waylon Cash grew pale, and the color left his eyes.

"What do you have to say to that?" Annie said, putting her finger to her chin.

After a pause, Cash spoke.

"Go to hell." He said, short and simple.

Cash raised his revolver and fired several rounds into Annie's body, twitching from the pain of every shot. After 5 rounds were fired into Annie's arms, legs, and chest, he fired one more into Annie's forehead. This sent her flying backwards, and onto the floor. For a second, Cash staggered after the final round, but Little Queen dissolved and fizzled away before he could feel the full effect of it. Annie laid on the ground, lifeless and drenched in blood.

Dreamboat Annie was dead, her life taken by Waylon Cash

Rocko looked at Cash, who was staring at Annie's bullet riddled corpse.

"Aren't you going to kill me now?" Rocko said

After a moment, Cash responded. "I just told her that."

Cash looked at Rocko, who was still lying on the ground.

"I may have saved you here, but that was only by chance." Cash said, "Don't think this makes us allies, my goal here simply resulted in you living."

"You could have just shot her then, instead of getting her ability off me." Rocko said

Cash looked back at Annie. "I guess I felt generous."

Cash put his gun back into his holster. "She got cocky. She wouldn't have been able to kill me with her ability, even if she tried. She would have just died of blood loss."

Waylon Cash began to walk away. Rocko looked on for a moment before speaking.

"The Night Watch is still after you." She said

"Go ahead, try and hunt me down." Cash replied. "I'll just kill all of you."

Just like that, Waylon Cash disappeared into the streets of New York. Rocko continued to lay on her back. Even though she was free from Annie's ability, she was still losing a lot of blood. 20 minutes have passed, and her eyes began to feel heavy. She was about to doze off when she felt a kick to her side. She looked up to see a man standing above her, who poured freezing cold water on her face.

"Don't fall asleep." A deep voice said. "If you fall asleep while losing this much blood, you'll die."

"Josuke?" Rocko said

"Sorry, I'm not your friend." The man said.

The man leaned down, and obscured the light from the sun, making it easier to see his face. When Rocko saw the face of the man, she felt her heart stop, and she wanted to scream.

It was him. The man described in Yorke's story. The yellow eyes, the beard cut into stripes, the tied back hair, the worn out jacket, the sweatpants with designs on them, the mice and hummingbird tattoos. It was him, it was actually him.

"Are you Brock?" Rocko asked, "Annie mentioned someone named Brock, are you him?"

"Do you mind telling me what happened here?" Brock Bukowski said

Rocko said nothing. Bukowski took notice to this silence and simply pulled out a quarter from his pocket and began flipping it in his hand. He looked over to Annie's body.

"Did she attack you?" Bukowski asked

"I'm not telling you anything until you tell me your name." Rocko replied

Bukowski's gaze quickly shifted towards Rocko, his glare giving Rocko a dark feeling, almost like she was burning.

"My name is Brock Bukowski." He replied, "And yes, Annie worked for me. Will you please tell me what happened here?"

"You killed Joseph." Rocko said, disregarding Bukowski's question.

Rage overcame Rocko, and Dirty Harry appeared and threw a punch towards Bukowski's head. However, Bukowski quickly threw the coin that was in his hand in front of Dirty Harry's fist. The punch hit the coin, but it didn't stop. It went INSIDE the coin, almost as if the coin was absorbing Dirty Harry's hand. Rocko felt a maddening pain in her hand, one that almost made her faint, and quickly pulled Dirty Harry's fist out of the coin. Rocko looked at her and Dirty Harry's hand, and was shocked at what she saw.

Her and Dirty Harry's whole arm up to her elbow was evenly split down the middle into 10 strips, almost like string cheese.

She saw something else standing above her. More fear grew inside of her heart when she saw a creature with a long tall head hunched over her in the most unnatural way. The creature's whole body was sickly and black as coal, and it's head violently shook while making a deep popping sound, almost like the sound when you pop your neck.

"I wouldn't advise doing that again." Bukowski said, his voice becoming frustrated.

Bukowski stood up and looked at Annie's body. He took notice of the numerous bullet holes all around Annie's body.

"Did Waylon do this?" Bukowski asked

"No." Rocko replied, "She attacked me, and I shot her in self defense."

"Hm." Bukowski responded, "I told her not to attack anybody from the Night Watch if she were to encounter them."

His glare once again returned to Rocko.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

Bukowski walked over to Annie and picked her up, carrying her over his shoulders.

"By the way, I think you're friend is walking over here, so I'll be going."

And as quickly as he appeared, Bukowski disappeared behind an Alley."

After he disappeared, Rocko heard running footsteps behind her.

"Holy hell, what happened here?" Josuke asked, quickly using Crazy Diamond to heal Rocko."

"I know his name." Rocko said

"Who's name?" Josuke replied

After she was healed, Rocko immediately stood up, and glared at Josuke.

"Joseph's killer, the man from Yorke's story." She said, "His name is Brock Bukowski."

===To=Be=Continued===


	40. We Have His Name, Brock Bukowski

Achtung Baby: A stand with the ability to turn objects and the user invisible.

Destructive: B

Speed: B

Range: D

Persistence: B

Precision: B

Development Potential: A

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"You have the killer's name?" Shizuka asked, her face painted with shock and fear.

"I do." Rocko replied, "His name is Brock Bukowski."

"How can you be so sure?" Maria asked

"Yeah, what if it's a fake name?" Rick said, "Why would he just tell you his real name?"

"I don't know." Rocko said, "While he may be a killer, there was a certain... honesty to him. I don't think he lied."

Rocko was sitting in the living room of the Night Watch hideout with Rick, Maria, and Shizuka. There was a short silence, one that almost lasted a 30 seconds, before someone finally spoke.

"Did you see his ability?" Shizuka asked

"Yes, I saw his stand." Rocko replied

"What did it look like?" Shizuka said

"I only caught a glimpse of it, but it was black, almost like i was looking into a void. It had a long narrow head, which twitched and shook, making a popping sound that made me feel sick."

When Shizuka heard this, her heart almost stopped. She swear she felt the feeling of the creature from her nightmares standing behind her, almost like a traumatic flashback. A look of horror on her face, one that was quickly noticed by everyone in the room.

"You alright Shizuka?" Maria asked

After a pause, Shizuka forced herself to speak

"I've seen his stand before." she said.

Everyone in the room went silent, as nobody knew how to respond.

"When did you see it?" Rocko asked, "How could you have seen it?"

"I see it in my room." Shizuka said, "Sometimes I would wake up from a nightmare, and see it at the end of my bed, staring at me."

"Does it ever do anything?" Rocko replied

"No, but one night, after the incident with Angie, it followed me home."

"Then what?" Rocko asked

"It... grabbed me, its fingers felt like ice on my skin. It tried to drag me away, but I was able to react and throw a punch at it with Achtung Baby. But before I could hit it, it disappeared."

"Is that it?" Rick said

"Don't pester her dude." Rocko said with a hiss at Rick

"No, that's not it." Shizuka said. "When I looked back, I saw someone run around the corner. It was very quick, but I can say for certain it was a person. After that, I ran into my home, and I collapsed in the corner of my room, petrified with fear. The creature was there again, but it just watched me as it usually does. After a moment, it just... disappeared."

"Well it's a good thing that you ran Shizuka." Rocko said, "I saw first hand what Brock Bukowski can do with his stand, how it's able to cut things up."

"And how is that?" Rick asked.

"When I tried to punch him, he threw a coin into the air. Dirty Harry's fist went... inside the coin, almost like it's fist disappeared into water. When it pulled its hand back out, it was cut into 10 strips."

"So, he cuts things up by merging things with other things?"

"No, if that were the case, then I would have said that." Rocko said, "But something felt different, I think there's more to Bukowski's ability that we haven't seen yet."

"Well, I hope we don't find out too soon." Rick said, "If it's an ability that's able to kill that gruesomely with that much ease, it's something I don't really want to mess with."

"First things first, we need to know more about the guy." Maria interrupted, "What can we really do to someone we know nothing about? We don't know where he is, or what he's doing. I think we should all go home for now, and tomorrow we can figure out a plan."

"You seem certain." Rick said, "What, you expect we'll all be ready to take on a killer by tomorrow?"

"Did I say that?" Maria responded with frustration in her voice. "I said we should all go home, and tomorrow we'll meet again and figure out where we can go from here."

Everyone looked at each other, then nodded. Everyone left one by one, and returned to their homes. Except for Maria, who stayed behind at the hideout.

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It was 9:30pm, and Shizuka just finished getting ready for bed. She was sleeping earlier than she usually does, but she felt especially tired that night. She got a snack, drank some warm milk, brushed her teeth, and made her way to her room for a good nights rest. As she was laying down and slipping below the blanket, her phone buzzed. She thought nothing of it, as she gets plenty of notifications from her various social media accounts. However, this wasn't anything like that. Rather, it was a text message.

A text message from a phone number she didn't recognize. It wasn't in her contacts, and it had no name.

9:38pm: Hey

She looked at her phone a while before responding.

9:39pm: hello

Then, a response.

9:39pm: Hurry and get out here.

Shizuka began to feel nervous. She noticed a car sitting outside of her apartment building.

9:40pm: who is this

She immediately got a response.

9:40pm: I don't have time Shizuka, get out here.

Shizuka began to hear honking coming from the car outside, and dread filled her body.

9:41pm: im going to call the police

There was a delay this time, almost 2 minutes before getting a response.

9:43pm: If you call the police Shizuka, I'll kill you.

Against Shizuka's better judgement, she felt she needed to go outside. She didn't want to risk having whoever was outside to come in and hurt her mother. She got dressed, grabbed her phone, and exited the building. She saw the car parked by the sidewalk with the headlights on. She nervously approached the door on the passengers side, and the person sitting behind the wheel leaned over the roll down the window.

"Jesus Shizuka, took you long enough." Said Maria, who was sitting behind the wheel of the vehicle.

A huge wave of relief fell over Shizuka, like a knife was just taken out of her chest.

"What are you doing here?" Shizuka asked

"Hurry, get in." Maria said, disregarding Shizuka's question.

Without much thought, Shizuka opened the door and sat down. The car was old, but it had a certain "Retro" charm that Shizuka enjoyed. The car seemed to be an old El Camino, but random grey pieces along the sides of the interior suggest that there were make shift repairs.

"Hey Shizuka." Maria said, "You can turn things invisible, right?"

"Uh yeah." Shizuka said, "I thought you knew."

"Honestly, I sometimes forget you're part of the Night Watch to begin with."

This statement made Shizuka look down for a moment, but Maria began to speak right after it.

"Think you can give me a hand with something?"

"Sure I guess." Shizuka said, "What do you need help with?"

"I want to break into a police station and see if I can find anything about this Brock Bukowski guy." Maria replied

Shizuka was a bit taken back by this before speaking.

"You want to... break into a police station?"

"Yeah, you in?" Maria replied.

===To=Be=Continued===


	41. Breaking and Entering (Part 1)

Black Magic Woman: This stand's eyes shine a magnificent light, only hidden by it's eyelids. With one gaze of this light, Maria's mind is switched to your body, and your own mind is put into limbo. All you would see is a flash of light, and the world would have changed around you.

Destructive: C (User's own strength)

Speed: B

Range: C (10 meters)

Persistence: A

Precision: C

Development Potential: B

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"Ok, let me make sure I'm understanding you completely." Shizuka said, "You want me to turn us both invisible so you can sneak into a guarded police station, just so you can get a scrap of info about the killer?"

Maria M. and Shizuka were on their way to the Copeland Police Station in Staten Island. It was a long drive from Manhattan, including the long and tedious traffic that continue to crowd the streets at 10pm at night. The previously sunny day turned into a cold and bitter rain, and then into a slushy snow.

"Look, if it's such a burden to you, I can take you back home." Maria said in a frustrated tone

"No, I'll help, it's just that... Do you even have a plan?"

"If I didn't have a plan, why would I even be here?" Maria replied, her voice getting more and more angry.

"You're right, sorry." Shizuka said, trying not to escalate things further.

"Like seriously, I'm not reckless." Maria said, "I've done this shit before."

"OK, I GET IT!" Shizuka yelled, feeling stressed from the tension building up.

A sour look washed over Maria's face, but she quieted down. It was silent in the car, except for the car's radio, which was playing a mix of moody blues, Eloy, Van Der Graaf Generator, Maria's favorites. Maria's face kept its expression of bitterness for a while, and Shizuka felt uncomfortable from the tension.

"Did I do something wrong?" Shizuka asked in a quiet tone.

"No." Maria said, then returned to her silence.

The two were silent for the rest of the drive. An hour passed before they finally arrived at the Copeland Police Station. It was almost 11pm, and nearly a foot of snow had covered the ground of Staten Island. Maria turned her headlights off a block before parking on the bottom floor of a parking complex.

"Follow me." Maria said

Shizuka nodded, and they both exited the car. Maria opened the back seat door and grabbed a thick Flannel Jacket. It was pretty worn and beaten up, but it seemed to do the job. Maria began to walk towards the sidewalk, motioning Shizuka to follow. Shizuka followed Maria through the snow for 10 minutes before they arrived in front of the Copeland Police Station. Maria looked at the building for an awfully long time before walking to the side, where there was a lone door in the alley between it and the neighboring building.

"Don't do anything yet, just follow." Maria said in a hushed tone.

Shizuka nodded and followed. They stood in front of the side door, and there was noise coming from the other side. It sounded like a television, every so often a laugh track would be heard.

"What are you going to do?" Shizuka said, "I can turn us both invisible and we can go in through the roof."

"Quiet." Maria said in a strict tone.

After this, she clenched her hand into a fist, and knocked on the door.

"What are you doing?" Shizuka said, concerned.

"I told you to be quiet." Maria said, frustrated and annoyed.

A moment passed, and they heard the television pause, and footsteps began to approach the door.

"Hello?" A young nervous sounding man said from the other door. "Who's out there?"

Maria and Shizuka said nothing. They froze in their place like they were encased in ice. After a moment, they heard the television turn back on.

"There's someone there." Shizuka said, "We can try my idea?"

Maria didn't respond, instead she looked at Shizuka with a thousand mile stare, a look of annoyance in her eyes.

"Sorry, I'll... I'll shut up." Shizuka said

"Thank god." Maria said

Before tension could build up once again, Maria pounded on the door a second time. This time, the television paused right away, and the footsteps were more rushed.

"Commissioner Sting? Is that you?" Said the same voice.

"No, it's officer Laura." Maria yelled out.

Shizuka's face was in horror. "What was Maria doing?" She thought to herself.

"Oh, are you supposed to come through the back door?" The voice said.

"No, but I locked myself out by accident." Maria said

"Oh, well alright." The man said

The door creaked open, and the face of the man was shown. Before he could see that Maria wasn't actually an officer, she pulled him by the collar out of the building and threw him onto the snowy ground.

"I locked myself out?" Maria said in a snarky tone. "You actually fell for that?"

The man was quick to draw his gun.

"Freeze, this is private property. Put your hands in the air." The man said in a nervous tone, showing he's never had to do this before."

"Good Grief." Maria said.

Before Shizuka's eyes, a tall and slender figure appeared behind Maria. The figure was wearing a tight black dress, almost resembling a nun, and had long hair clumped together like dread locks. The creature's face was made of porcelain, and it's eyes opened, shining a bright light onto the officer. Something caught Shizuka's attention though, the officer had a look of horror on his face, looking at Maria's stand. There was a problem, however...

Non stand users can't see stands.

After the light was shone on the officer eyes, Maria's body suddenly fell limp and fell to the ground.

"Maria?" Shizuka said

"You never seen my stand before, have you?" The officer said.

Shizuka was confused, as she saw the officer casually stand up and walk to Shizuka.

"I...guess I didn't know you could do that."

"Black Magic Woman allows me to let my mind invade another person's body. However, I can only be in here for a minute, so we need to hurry."

"What's your plan?" Shizuka said

"This is where you come in." Maria said, "I need you to carry my body, and turn you and it invisible."

Maria (Officer) walked towards the door and walked inside the building.

"We need to find where they keep all their files." Maria said, "After that, we can put the officer somewhere and leave."

"Why couldn't we just turn ourselves invisible right off the bat?" Shizuka asked

"We would have caused a commotion if we just opened the door and walked in." Maria said, "Even if it's only one officer that sees that, it will make things a lot more difficult in the long run."

Shizuka nodded. They both walked into the building, and into the room the officer was just in. Shizuka did her part and turned herself and Maria's body invisible, as she carried it over her shoulders.

"Maria, I noticed something strange." Shizuka said

"I know." Maria said, "We'll talk about it once we find the file room."

"What about your stand?" Shizuka said, "What if someone sees it?"

Maria took a second to answer, as she opened the door and began to walk through a long hallway decorated with plaques, pictures of retired officers, and awards given to the station. Shizuka was extremely quiet. She couldn't help but notice that Black Magic Woman was casually walking along side Maria (officer), constantly shining it's light onto her.

They soon arrived in a large room, where several officers were typing away on computers, doing paper work, or chatting with each other.

===To=Be=Continued===

Attention: There will be a brief hiatus before the next chapter. Thank you for understanding


	42. Breaking and Entering (Part 2)

Stand Fact: Although Maria claims that she only has a minute to use her ability before her brain begins to fry, she doesn't actually know for certain, as she's never reached that moment. All she knows is that she starts to feel dizzy at 50 seconds, or if she uses the ability over and over to quickly.

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"Hey, Gilmour!" An officer yelled to Maria, who at this time was inside the body of the guard. "What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be keeping an eye on the security cameras?"

Shizuka, invisible while holding Maria's body, begun to panic. She was about to tell Maria they should bail, but Maria was already ahead of her.

"I got hungry, so I'm making me a sandwich." Maria said with Security Guard Gilmour's voice.

"I thought you just came out to get food." The officer replied, "Don't tell me you ate it already."

Gilmour (Maria) was nervous for a second, before finally responding.

"I guess it's just one of those nights."

"No, you had enough to eat Gilmour." The officer said, "We need you at the security feed."

"Maria." Shizuka whispered very quietly, "We need to leave."

However, Maria ignored this, and walked over to the counter.

"May I at least get a cup of coffee?" Gilmour (Maria) said.

"Sure, just make it quick Gilmour." The officer said

"Don't worry, I'll be in and out."

Maria began to walk to the coffee maker sitting on a lone desk in the side of the room. Shizuka followed right behind, being sure not to bump into anything or anyone. Maria's limp body was beginning to weight her down, and sweat started to drip down her face.

"Maria, I'm getting tired." Shizuka whispered.

Once again, Maria ignored Shizuka, and brew herself a cup of coffee. It was a keurig machine, so it brewed her coffee in a snap, and she received the piping hot cup. After she picked it up, she took a small sip, and walked to the center of the room.

"Hey Gilmour, we need you at security." The officer said, "How many times do I need to tell you?"

"Oh, I heard you the first time." Gilmour (Maria) said.

As soon as she said this, Maria stood at the side, with all 11 officers that were in the room staring at her. After she took one last sip, she tossed the mug of hot coffee in the middle of the room. As the mug traveled through the air, Black Magic Woman walked along it. It's eyes opened, and it turned it's head slowly, left to right.

This was perfect, as every officers attention was on the mug, and they would be looking right into the eyes of Black Magic Woman.

One by one, as soon as one of the officers looked into Black Magic Woman's eyes, they would grab a random hard object near them, whether that would be their own baton, a stapler, their monitors, etc. Once they had it in hand, they would swing it at their own head, leaving a cut and sending them unconscious to the ground. Eventually, every officer was out cold, and Maria was back in her own body.

As soon as Maria was in her own body again, she quickly scrambled off of Shizuka's shoulders and ran to a nearby bathroom, then vomited into the toilet. Shizuka turned visible again and quickly followed behind and saw Maria leaning over the toilet.

"Are you alright?" Shizuka asked

"Yeah, I'll be okay." Maria said, "I've just never swapped between people that quickly before."

Gilmour quickly stood back up, being in his own body once again. He quickly looked around and saw all of his fellow officers knocked out on the ground, and looked at Shizuka and Maria

"Uh, uh." Gilmour stuttered, falling to the ground on his back.

"Hey Shizuka." Maria said, pointing at a roll of duct tape sitting on a desk in the main room, "Would you mind?"

When Gilmour heard this, he began to scramble backwards.

"Woah, Woah, hang on guys." He said, fear in his voice, "Please don't hurt me, I'll tell you whatever you want."

Before Shizuka or Maria could hear him out, they already wrapped his legs and arms with duct tape, and were about to put some over his mouth.

"Hey HEY, are you guys looking for the case room?" Gilmour yelled.

"I already know where it is." Maria said, "Shizuka, please shut him up."

"HEY, LISTEN." Gilmour yelled, "There are cameras in the case room that don't go to my own feed. The feed goes directly to Commissioner Sting."

This quickly caught Maria's attention, and he looked back at Gilmour.

"We won't be seen."

"That doesn't matter." Gilmour responded, "The feed for the security cameras in this room also go to Commissioner Sting, as well as me. What do you think he's going to think when he watched 11 officers knock themselves out? I know it was that thing walking behind you guys."

Maria and Shizuka both turned their heads towards Gilmour.

"You saw Black Magic Woman?" Maria asked

"Yeah, I saw it, I know this was all you." Gilmour responded

Maria's look of surprise turned sour, and she pointed at Gilmour

"Show me yours." Maria said

"Show you what?" Gilmour responded

"Show me your stand asshole." Maria said

"Well, about that." Gilmour said, sweat starting to form on his face, "My own ability is already out, he's going to pull the alarm."

Just as he said this, Shizuka noticed something peering at them from behind the doorway to the security room. The head was very small, and all Shizuka could see was a single empty eye socket peering down the hallway, before quickly darting into the room.

"Don't you dare pull that alarm." Maria said

"I have to." Gilmour said, "You guys need to leave quick, these officers need medical attention."

"We aren't going anywhere." Maria said

"Suit yourself, but I'm still going to pull it."

"Do it, and I'll cut your hands off." Maria said

"Wait a second." Shizuka said, looking at the officers laying on the ground. "Maybe he's right, we can't just leave them like that."

"Yeah, she gets it." Gilmour said, "I won't rat you guys out, you just need to leave before I pull it."

Maria quickly shot a look at Shizuka

"Shizuka, shut the fuck up already." Maria said, "I've had enough of you trying to take over my operation. You are here to assist me, nothing more. I had a plan, follow along, or you can go home."

"Oh wow, great plan you have here." Shizuka said, frustration starting to fill her voice, "We have a stand user right here, 11 dying officers, our faces being broadcasted to this Sting guy, great plan you have here Maria."

Right as Shizuka finished her sentence, Maria threw a punch at Shizuka's temple, sending Shizuka to the ground. Shizuka put her hand to her face and starred at Maria. Maria's look of anger turned into an insincere smile.

"Alright, fine." Maria said in a condescending tone, "What do you think we should do, if you have this so under control."

"Well, whatever you guys decide, I'm still pulling the alarm." Gilmour said

Maria turned her attention towards Gilmour.

"Uh, sorry, I'll be quiet." Gilmour said

Shizuka pondered for a moment, looking at the Officers, then at Gilmour.

"Pull the alarm Gilmour, we're leaving."

Right as she said this, they heard a loud ringing sound coming from nearly every direction. Instantly, Maria began marching towards the security room, and used Black Magic Woman to punch through the alarm switch, as well as destroying the monitors and recorders to the Security Feed. As she did this, all of the security Camera's shut down.

"Alright, reinforcements are coming." Gilmour said, "As long as you guys keep a low profile getting out of here, you should be ok. Now go."

"We aren't going anywhere." Maria said, walking back in the room. "We still have a job to do."

Gilmour and Shizuka both looked at Maria.

"What the fuck Maria." Shizuka said, "They have reinforcements coming."

"You can turn us invisible, can't you?" Maria said

"Yes, bu-"

"Alright, then we can still look for Bukowski's records." Maria interrupted.

===To=Be=Continued===


	43. Breaking and Entering (Part 3)

The Copeland Police Station: One of several small police stations centered in Staten Island. This particular Station has over a dozen personal, and is headed by Commissioner Sting.

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Gilmour looked at Shizuka and Maria, shocked that they were going to continue snooping through the station. Even with backup on the way, and the whole police force of Staten Island knowing there are trespassers, Maria wouldn't budge.

"Are you insane?" Gilmour said, "What here is worth SO much that you would risk a felony?'

"It doesn't concern you." Maria replied

"Uh, yeah, it DOES concern me. If they find out I let you guys in, I'll lose my job."

"They won't find out." Maria said

Maria suddenly darted down a small hallway past the kitchen, which lead to a large open room. Along the walls of this room were countless shelves full of boxes. Maria picked up one of the boxes and opened it, revealing files packed so densely that there was barely room for another. Maria began to say each letter out loud.

"A"

"B"

"C"

The box ended at C. Maria put the box back on the shelf, and grabbed the next.

"D"

"E"

"F"

And then the next, and so forth. After a few minutes, Maria and Shizuka heard several footsteps coming from the back door. Shizuka was quick to run to Gilmour, and turned him and herself invisible just before the heavily armored Swat team arrived. They each were covered head to toe in bullet proof gear, and they each had a large automatic rifle aimed up. They marched all around, going room to room. They shouted to each other; the room is clear, this looks suspicious, no signs of intruders, letting each other know what was going on. Luckily, Shizuka and Gilmour were invisible, so they couldn't see them. However, Maria was still fully visible in the file room.

"Shit." Shizuka thought to herself, "That idiot is going to get herself caught. I can't just run over to her, the Swat Team will hear me."

Suddenly, Shizuka heard a loud crash come from Gilmour's post. It sounded like glass being tossed around, and a chair came flying out of the room. The Swat Team immediately turned around and aimed their guns at the door. After a moment, they marched in single file towards the room. Shizuka turned to Gilmour, who was gesturing her towards the file room. Shizuka understood that Gilmour used whatever stand he had to cause a distraction, and she took advantage of it, running to the File room.

As soon as she arrived in the file room, Shizuka quietly shut the door behind her, and ran to Maria.

"What the hell are you thinking?" Shizuka whispered, frustration coloring her voice, "We need to get the hell out of here. This kind of crime would put us in prison for years."

"Well, don't get caught then." Maria said, a sarcastic smirk growing on her face, "Besides, I've done this plenty of times, I know what I'm doing."

Shizuka pulled on her hair, and let out a sigh.

"Fine, but I swear, I'll beat the shit out of you if we get caught."

"Sure, whatever." Maria said

Shizuka quickly reached and touched Maria, turning her invisible. Maria continued to browse through the files, all while Shizuka paced back and forth. They can hear the swat team searching the building in the other side of the building, so it was only a matter of time until they checked out the file room. Suddenly, Shizuka heard several footsteps coming towards the file room, and she quickly grabbed onto Maria and pulled her away.

Before Maria could call Shizuka's behavior out, the door busted open, and 4 swat units marched into the room with their guns aimed up, scoping out the room. Shizuka and Maria were completely silent, and they stood completely still. The swat team quickly took notice of the missing files, which were sitting on the desk behind Shizuka and Maria. Also on the desk was Maria and Shizuka's phones, and Maria suggested they put their phones aside so in the worst case scenario, their phones won't reveal their locations. Shizuka didn't see the logic in this, but she followed along to avoid conflict.

Suddenly, one of the Swat team noticed the files, and went to grab them. They all huddled around the files, leaving no room to escape for Shizuka and Maria. And one of the Swat team began to reach forward. If he kept reaching forward, he would touch Maria, and blow both of their cover. Shizuka and Maria began to panic, and starting thinking of a plan. However, their minds came up blank, they couldn't think of a way to get out of this situation. Maria COULD use Black Magic Woman to get them all to injure each other, but she was still dizzy from the last use of her stand, and she feared it would kill her if she did it again. All seemed lost, and Maria and Shizuka held completely still, and hoped for something to distract them.

Luckily for them, something did.

"Hello, this is commissioner Sting." A voice said over the stations loud speakers. "The trespassers have abandoned Copeland Station, and they are currently on route to The Summers Station on the other side of Staten Island, all units are to intersect them at all costs."

When the Swat team heard this, they all began to leave the file room. Everything seemed to be going well, and Maria was about to continue checking for Bukowsi's file, if there even was one in this station. However, Maria and Shizuka heard music, the ending to White Hammer by Van Der Graaf Generator. It was coming from Maria's phone, and the swat team immediately turned around to face the phone. They quickly approached the desk, and began to reach for Maria's phone. Maria was still in the way, and just like before, she was completely surrounded.

The swat team reached forward, his hand getting closer and closer to Maria. Shizuka panicked, and began to think of a solution. However, this would prove to be unnecessary. As the swat team reached forward, his hand completely passed through Maria, without any sign of struggle. The swat unit barely noticed anything, and simply grabbed the ringing phone. He pulled it towards it, with his arm still seemingly phasing through Maria. Eventually, the phone was in his possession, and his arm was out of Maria's stomach. Maria wasn't doing any better, as she was almost on the verge of tears, her adrenaline pumping, wondering what just happened. The swat team looked at the phone, but it was a restricted call. They couldn't trace it, so the best they could do was answer and see who spoke.

He didn't say hello, and nobody said anything on the other side of the line. Whoever was on the other end of the line simply hung up. With nothing else to gain, the swat team simply threw the phone aside and marched out of the room. After a moment, they heard the team leave and the van drove off. When the coast was clear, Maria collapsed on the ground and begun to hyperventilate. Shizuka couldn't understand what just happened either, it was almost like Maria wasn't there, and the swat team was able to effortlessly pass through her. Shizuka turned her and Maria visible again, and Maria quickly sprung up and grabbed Shizuka by the collar.

"How did you do that?" Maria said in a panicked voice. "What was that? What did you do?"

"I-I don't know." Shizuka said, "I have no idea what happened."

Maria let go of Shizuka and begun to pace the room, trying to calm herself down.

"Well, whatever you did, it saved our asses." Maria said, "So good job."

"Uh, thanks." Shizuka said, still trying to process in her head what she did.

"I'm going to keep looking for Bukowski's file. I took out the security cameras, so go ahead and make Gilmour visible again." Maria said.

Shizuka did just that, and she walked over to Gilmour and turned him visible again. Shizuka also cut the duct tape, as it was pointless to keep him tied up any longer. Gilmour stood up and rubbed his back.

"Ugh, laying in that position really takes your back out." Gilmour said

"Yeah, well, I didn't want to piss Maria off, so I just did what she said." Shizuka said. "It's crazy, I have no clue why your Commissioner reported that we left, but I won't complain."

"That wasn't commissioner Sting." Gilmour said with a mischievous smile on his face. With a wink, he gestured over to the hallway, and Shizuka noticed the same small figure peering from the security room. This time however, it was holding a microphone. As soon as Shizuka noticed it, it once again darted back into the room.

"So you have a stand, just like me and Maria?" Shizuka said

"Is that what you guys call your abilities, a stand?" Gilmour said, "Then yeah, I also have a stand."

"Ah, I see." Shizuka said

There was a bit of a pause, then Shizuka spoke again.

"Why did you help us? Isn't your job to prevent us from doing something like this?"

"Eh, there isn't really a reason." Gilmour said, "For some reason, I guess I just thought you guys needed whatever file you wanted for a good reason."

"What do you mean by that?" Shizuka said with a smile on her face.

"I don't know, I guess it was just a gut feeling." Gilmour replied

Shizuka's smile grew bigger. "Well thanks, you've been a big help."

"Don't mention it." Gilmour said

"BOOM BITCHES!" Maria yelled while running into the room. She slammed a file onto the table, and sure enough, it was a file on Brock Bukowski.

"You found it, huh?" Shizuka said

"Fuck yeah I did, now lets get the hell out of here." Maria replied, "Don't need any more attention on our asses, we're lucky that swat team didn't take my phone."

"Well, we're going to leave." Shizuka said to Gilmour

"Good luck you two." Gilmour responded.

Shizuka and Maria walked out of the station, and waded through the thick snow that gathered on the ground since they began their break in. They eventually made it to Maria's car, all while Gilmour was watching them from the station. As the car drove out of the lot and into the street, Gilmour noticed his stand clinging onto the back of the car. He gave a thumbs up to it, and his stand returned the gesture. Gilmour reached into this pocket and pulled out his phone. He dialed a number, and the phone rang.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end said.

"Roger, you awake?" Gilmour said

"Yeah, I just got home from work." Roger replied

"I just met this girl." Gilmour said, "I'll tell you more about it when I get home."

"Not again Gil-" Roger said before Gilmour hung up.

Gilmour walked to the same parking lot Maria was previously, and got in his own car. He started it up, and drove back to his home.

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Shizuka and Maria once again where on a long drive through the night, the snow falling like nails from the sky. It was a little past midnight, and it was blistering cold outside. It was completely silent besides the radio for a good while, at least half an hour. Suddenly, Shizuka reached over to the radio and turned it off. Maria was about to speak up, but Shizuka talked first.

"What's your deal?" She said

"Whats my deal?" Maria replied

"With me?" Shizuka said

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit, you've done nothing but antagonize me all night. If you don't tell me right now, I'm walking the rest of the way home."

Maria noticed that Shizuka had a dead serious look on her face, and she started to pull the car over to the side of the road. Maria was silent, and they stayed there for nearly 5 minutes.

"Oh, so that's it, you're going to avoid talking abo-"

"You remind me of Joseph." Maria interrupted.

There was a pause before Shizuka replied.

"What?"

"You remind me of Joseph, I hate it." Maria said

"What are you talking about? I remind you of my dad?"

"The way you just bullshit your way out of trouble, the way you talk, how you try to get on everyone's good side. You act just like him."

Maria wiped her face with her hand, and turned to face Shizuka.

"When Joseph died, it really hit us hard." Maria said, "Joseph meant a lot to us, and we wouldn't be anything we are today if it wasn't for him. I'm not telling you he meant more to us than he means to you, but you can't understand what he did for us."

There was another pause, and Maria seemed to get more troubled.

"And just like Joseph, you're always right."

"What do you mean?" Shizuka said

"I had no plan, I just improvised all that."

"What?" Shizuka said

"I-I... Nothing, let's just drop it."

"Uh, alright."

Maria and Shizuka stayed in silence for a bit longer before Maria put the car into drive and continued their way to Manhattan.

"You were totally scared there for a second." Shizuka said

"What are you on about?" Maria replied

"Oh no, they're going to find me, what do I do." Shizuka said in a mocking voice

"Shut the fuck up." Maria chuckled, and Shizuka laughed along

"But seriously though, Shizuka." Maria said, "What happened back there, with that swat unit's hand going through me?"

"I don't know, I don't know what to tell you. Im stumped myself." Shizuka replied

It was a relatively silent drive, with Shizuka and Maria occasionally cracking jokes, but they continued their drive to Manhattan. Things are looking bright, with this new information they acquired on Bukowski, they may have a chance to find him.

===To=Be=Continued===


	44. Something's Loose in Shizuka's Home

Stand Fact: Although non stand users can't see stands, they can still see the effects of a stand. Sometimes a stand is manifested in an object, only then can a non stand user technically see a stand.

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Gilmour drove up a long snowy street in the pitch black night towards his home in Northern Staten Island. Even with the car heater at it's max, the chill coming from outside was still enough to feel like needles on Gilmour's skin. The lights of the buildings and houses illuminated the streets, almost like countless stars hanging in the city. Eventually, he pulled up to his 2 room apartment, a reasonably sized place, giving his wage.

With his stands help, he was able to decide that Shizuka and the woman with her were just getting off Staten Island.

He opened his door, and stepped out into the frigid snowy sidewalk, and marched through the foot deep slush that settled on the ground. He reached for his key, but the door opened before he was able to unlock the door. The person who opened the door was a fairly tall and skinny man with a shallow face and long black hair. He was in a white t shirt with red pajama bottoms. Gilmour recognized this man as his roommate, Roger.

"Oh good, you're awake." Gilmour said

What Roger saw out in the snow was a fairly tone man with short golden blonde hair with light stubble. He was still in his work uniform.

"What did you do this time Gil?" Roger said with an unimpressed tone to his voice and face.

"Let me get changed, and I'll tell you." Gilmour responded.

Gilmour rushed inside and darted to his room, changing out of his work uniform into something more casual. He wore a light blue button up shirt decorated with planes and pictures of islands as they would appear on a map. He also wore a black pair of jeans with generic white shoes. Over this, he put on a thick black wool coat. He exited his room, and he saw Roger laying on the couch with a mug of coffee in his hand.

"Alright, so-"

"You met another girl." Roger said, interrupting Gilmour.

"Uh, yeah. So I was going to-"

"You were going to use your thing to track her down so you can talk to her?" Roger once again interrupted.

"Yeaaah, you sound annoyed." Gilmour said with worry in his voice.

"We've been over this before Gil." Roger said, taking a sip of coffee and finally making eye contact with Gilmour. "You're going to somehow track down some girl you talk to for like 10 minutes, they're going to freak out and wonder how the hell you tracked them down, either that or they're not going to recognize you, and you're going to follow along and pretend you've never met, either that or explain how it's just a coincidence."

Roger sat up, and put his coffee on the table.

"Don't you think that's even a little bit worrying, hunting down women you talk to less than we just talked right now?"

Gilmour felt insulted. "What the hell do you think I do when I finally see them?"

"That doesn't fucking matter Gilmour." Roger said, "I don't know how the shit you track them down, but you need to stop this shit."

"I told you how I do it." Gilmour said

"Yeah yeah, you use your... Ability, whatever the hell you called it."

"You still don't believe me, do you?" Gilmour said.

"What, that you have some supernatural creature by your side, helping you tracking down innocent people? No, I think it's total bullshit Gil." Roger replied

"Well, this time is different Roger."

"Oh yeah, how is that Gilmour." Roger said, rolling his eyes and taking another sip of his coffee.

"This woman has an ability too." Gilmour said

Roger nearly spat out his coffee, and almost broke out in laughter.

"Oooooh." Roger said, "You somehow found someone as crazy as you are."

"And she told me that my ability is called a Stand." Gilmour said

This time, Roger did break out into laughter. "Holy Shit Gilmour, you never cease to amaze me."

Roger calmed down, and begun to speak again.

"Let me tell you this Gilmour." He said, "If you ever get your ass arrested for this shit, I WILL NOT defend you."

Gilmour stared at Roger for a bit, and begun to walk towards the front door.

"Fine." Gilmour said, opening the door and walking out.

Roger remained on the couch.

"Stand." Roger said to himself, busting out into laughter again.

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It was 1:30 am, and Shizuka was at home in her pajamas. She wasn't asleep in bed, however, instead, she was poking at a water bottle that was sitting on her nightstand. Every time she poked it, it would move, and almost fall over. After a moment, she turned it invisible. She stared at the empty space where the invisible bottle was sitting, and after a moment, she moved her open hand quickly over it, smacking the bottle. She then made the bottle visible again. She was expecting the bottle to be on the floor, or knocked over on the nightstand, but instead, it was still standing, exactly where it was. She then swiped at it again while it was still visible, and it went flying across the room and on the floor. She went over and picked it up, set it on the nightstand, and she laid down in bed.

The thought of what was happening to her ability stayed fresh in her mind. Eventually, she tried something different. While she was laying in bed, she used Achtung Baby to turn her bed invisible. When it did, she immediately fell on the floor, making a loud thud sound. She stood up, and walked around the empty space where her bed once was. It was almost like the bed wasn't there anymore. When she was on the other side of the room, she reversed her ability. Sure enough, her bed was exactly where it was.

Shizuka looked over at Achtung Baby, and around it's neck, there was a dog tag. The dog tag didn't have any words on it, but instead it had a single star in the center of it.

Shizuka was ecstatic, did she get a new ability? No, it was the same as her old ability, but it got an upgrade. She tried the bed trick again, but this time, she wanted to make it just invisible. She tried to lay on it, and sure enough, she was laying comfortably on her invisible bed.

She made her bed invisible again, but her smile was fading away.

"What does this mean?" She thought to herself. She didn't understand why it was happening, or what it meant.

Even with these thoughts in her head, it wasn't too hard for her to fall asleep. She was exhausted from the night of breaking into a police station. She was fast asleep, however, she wasn't alone. A small creature about the size of a cat loomed over her.

This creature had a small, gray, can shaped head with a very human mouth. It had deep dark sockets where its eyes would be, and small horns curved upwards around the top of it's head, resembling a "crown" of sorts. It had a small gray torso, which was decorated with small pictures of bones. This creature had 6 arms, and no legs. These arms were thin and skinless, resembling a human skeleton's limbs. These skeletal arms were dyed a deep red, the same color as the bones on its body.

The creature moved one of its skeletal arms towards Shizuka's face. Just as it was about to touch her face, it started snapping its fingers.

"EY, WAKE UP." The creature said in a whiny voice with a thick Boston accent, "COME ON LADY, WAKE THE HELL UP."

Shizuka wasn't budging, and the creature was getting annoyed.

"I guess the broad isn't gonna wake up." The creature said to itself. Just then, the creature heard rumbling, and it held its stomach.

"There's gotta be food around here somewhere."

The creature lunged off the bed, using its 6 arms to crawl around the walls and floor like a spider. It shambled through Shizuka's home until it found the kitchen, in which it made a b line towards. As it got to the fridge, it immediately opened up the fridge, and its mouth started to water from all the contents. It started scarfing down the milk, the burger Shizuka was saving, Suzie's pudding, the cheese, anything it can get its bony hands on. Suddenly, the creature heard someone down the hall.

"Shizuka, is that you dear?" Suzie Q said

However, the creature didn't panic, as it knew exactly what to do.

"It's me mom, I'm just getting a snack." The creature said in Shizuka's voice.

"Alright sweetie. Don't eat too much before bed, or you'll get a stomach ache."

"Alright, thanks mom." The creature responded.

The creature heard the door shut, and it chuckled to itself.

"Work's every time." The creature said

===To=Be=Continued===


	45. Come And Get Your Love (Part 1)

Shizuka woke up to her alarm around 11am. Pretty late in the morning, but it's normal for Shizuka to wake up this late. She got up, made her coffee, and went to eat breakfast. She wanted to make herself some eggs, but when she checked the fridge, the carton was empty. She closed the fridge to look at the shopping list Suzie kept on the door with a magnet.

"Eggs." Shizuka wrote.

She looked around further, looking in the fridge, cabinets, there wasn't anything for breakfast to be found. She eventually found some frozen hash browns in the back of the freezer, they should do. Suzie was still fast asleep, as she's usually in bed until around 2 in the afternoon. As the pan was heating up for Shizuka to cook her hash browns, her phone beeped. She picked it up to see a message from Rocko.

11:23am: hey, you wanna run around town with me? i gotta deliver this letter for maria and pick up some food for the hideout. but you can come along. ill buy you lunch :)

Shizuka immediately turned off the stove and cooled off the pan. Afterwards, she began typing away at her phone.

11:25am: Sure:D Let me get ready

Shizuka took a shower and got dressed, putting on her snow shoes and parka. As she was going out the door, she thought she heard a cabinet shut. She looked over into the kitchen, and saw nothing unusual. She shrugged it off, thinking she forgot to shut a cabinet and must have shut itself under its own weight, they WERE pretty large cabinets. She left through the front door of the apartment, and locked the door behind her. Almost instantly, the cabinet she heard opened up again, and the small creature with skeletal arms and horns peered from the inside.

"Did she leave?" The creature said to itself, "Bah, I guess breakfast is over."

The creature cracked several eggs in its hand, and let the yolks fall from its hands into its mouth. It swallowed and scurried on the ground towards the window, opening it and crawling out.

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It was a bright and sunny day, not a cloud to be seen in the sky. However, the snow was still very fresh on the ground, and while it melted a bit to where it's only a few inches, it still did its work on creating a bitter cold blanket over the city. Shizuka once again was in warm clothing, and Rocko thought ahead and bought herself a new coat. However, she forgot about snow shoes. As they walked down the street towards the post office, they were unaware of the man watching them from an alley.

"Ok." Gilmour said, watching from behind a trash can. "This is perfect, I can meet with them at the post office. I can just say "Oh wow, what a coincidence." or "Oh hey, we've met before, it's me Gilmour.""

After a moment, Gilmour frowned and ducked behind the trash can.

"Oh this is hopeless. I bet someone as cool as her already has someone else. Why should I even try, this is pointless."

"HEY." The small creature said, startling Gilmour

"Christ, what?" Gilmour responded

"What, did I scare you?" The creature said with its thick Boston accent, "Don't you know where I'm always at?"

"What are you doing here?" Gilmour said, "You should be following those two."

"I know, but there's a problem." The creature said

"And that is?" Gilmour responded

The creature peered over towards Rocko, inspecting her closely.

"You said that the lady with the black hair and the scarf is the one I should cling on to, right?" The creature said, "And you also said that she has an ability too, and she would be able to see me."

"Yes, this is correct." Gilmour responded

"What about the other girl?"

"What do you mean?" Gilmour asked

"You talked about the black haired lady, but not about the other one, the lady with the red hair and the beret" The creature said, "Something about her rubs me the wrong way."

Gilmour rubbed his eyes and pointed at Rocko.

"I promise you she doesn't have an ability." Gilmour said, "Besides, what if she does see you, she'll just look crazy to Shizuka."

"Alright, fine, but I'm raising the price." The creature said, pointing at Gilmour.

"We already agreed on the price, it's not up for negotiation.

"I want three steaks the second we're done." The creature replied

"We agreed on two."

"Make it four or I ain't doin' shit." The creature said

Gilmour gave his stand a stern glare.

"You wanna shoot for five?"

Gilmour sighed. "Fine, three."

"Pleasure doin' business." The creature said

And just like that, the creature began scrambling through the snowy ground of Manhattan's streets with incredible speed. It bounced from person to person, crawled on the walls, it was no time at all before it finally caught up with Shizuka and Rocko. It jumped on an elderly woman's head, and lunged at Shizuka, landing firmly on her back. The creature grabbed onto Shizuka's arms, neck, and waist, until it had a firm grip. Shizuka was none the wiser, and had no clue what happened, but she had a passenger on her back.

"Alright, we're almost at the post office." Rocko said. "I think it's just a few more blocks."

Rocko turned to face Shizuka, however, she saw it. A strange small creature with six skeletal arms and a horned head riding on her back. She was shocked, not only of the sight, but Shizuka had no idea that it was there.

"Shizuka." Rocko said calmly.

"Hm?"

"Don't panic, but there is something on your back." Rocko said.

"What are you talking about?" Shizuka said.

"There is a stand on your back." Rocko said, this time her voice is more hurried.

Shizuka turned her head over her shoulders, but she couldn't see it.

"Are you serious Rocko?" Shizuka said, "Is this an enemy stand?"

"I don't know, but here." Rocko said, grabbing Shizuka and taking her to a window.

The window showed their reflections; Rocko, Shizuka, and the creature on her back.

"Do you see it?" Rocko asked

After a moment, Shizuka took a closer look, her eyes squinting while staring long into the reflection. After a moment, a smile began to form on her face.

"Oh my god Rocko." Shizuka laughed, "You really had me going for a second."

"Y-You don't see it?" Rocko said in a panicked voice, pointing at the creature's reflection.

Of course, the creature's reflection WAS on the window. However, through Shizuka's eyes, she saw nothing.

"Yep, that's us." Shizuka chuckled. "You know what you should have done? You should have made a paper miche stand and put it on my back when I wasn't looking. THEN you would have REALLY got me."

Rocko was really confused. Shizuka doesn't think anything is wrong at all, but she was staring directly at the creature on her back. The creature slowly turned it's head towards Rocko, and put it's finger over it's mouth, shushing her.

"She can't see me." The creature said, "Only you and my user can see me right now."

"SHIZUKA." Rocko yelled, "DID YOU HEAR IT?"

"Yeah, I heard it." Shizuka said, "That was a loud bang a block over, I hope everything's okay."

"That goes for hearing too." The creature said.

Rocko stared at the creature for a while, before cracking a fake smile.

"Y-yeah, I almost got you." Rocko said.

Shizuka chuckled a little bit before continuing to walk down the sidewalk. Rocko walked behind her, staring at the creature. She pulled out her phone, and opened a memo app. She typed down some words, and showed it to the creature.

"who are you and what are you doing on shizuka" the memo said.

"Oh, I see what you're doin', you don't wanna look crazy, huh?" The creature said

The creature crawled on top of Shizuka's head and started knocking on her forehead.

"Hey lady, I think your friend here might be crazy." It said, "I think she's seeing things."

Suddenly, Dirty Harry's hand grabbed a hold of the creature's head, and yanked it back. Dirty Harry had its other hand in a fist, threatening to pulverize the creature. Once again, Rocko had a memo on her phone, and it read...

"answer my question, who are you?"

"The name's Redbone sweet cheeks." The creature said, "I'm just doing a job for my user."

"Who is your user?" Rocko typed onto her memo.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that." Redbone Replied, "I'd love for you to kick his ass, that would make my day, but I have an arrangement."

"tell me, or ill break your head on the sidewalk."

"First of all, check your grammar lady." Redbone replied

Dirty Harry clenched it's fist even harder, but all Redbone did was smile.

"Try it baby."

Rocko smiled, and Dirty Harry swung its arm, careful to not hit Shizuka's head. It's fist flew through the air, quickly approaching Redbone's face. However, just as soon as it was about to make contact, Redbone was suddenly at Shizuka's lower back. Redbone chuckled.

"That mummy of yours is fast lady." Redbone said, "But you gotta be a hell of a lot faster if you wanna hit me."

===To=Be=Continued===


	46. Come And Get Your Love (Part 2)

Rocko continued to stare at Redbone, who was giving her a smug and victorious look. Gilmour was silently panicking, looking at Shizuka, Rocko, and his stand from a block away. He was sure now, Rocko was a stand user, and she was able to see Redbone. However, he slightly calmed himself down, remembering that Shizuka couldn't see or hear his stand, so only Rocko knew something was up.

Redbone turned itself back around, and looked at Rocko.

"So where are you two goin' anyway?" It said

Rocko typed into her memo app and showed it to Redbone.

"That's none of you or your users business."

"Come on now sweet cheeks, no need to be so defensive." Redbone said, "All my user is trying to do is follow you."

Rocko quickly stopped walking, and Gilmour almost screamed.

"At second thought Shizuka, why don't we grab lunch first." Rocko said, her voice nervous and sweat starting to form on her face, "I'm starving."

"But we're only a block away from the post office." Shizuka said.

"That's fine, there's a wendys just down this street."

Shizuka felt her stomach rumble.

"Their bacon burger does sound pretty good right now."

"Uh god you said it honey." Redbone said, saliva dripping down it's face.

"Perfect." Rocko thought to herself. "Redbone said that it's user was following us, there's no doubt in my mind that they're from the ladies of the road. They want to stop us from sending this letter."

Not knowing the true nature of Redbone and Gilmour's goal, Rocko was successful at derailing the walk to somewhere else, and she, Shizuka, and Redbone sat inside a small wendy's at a table. Rocko was picking at her fries, glaring over at Redbone while trying not to seem odd to Shizuka. Meanwhile, Redbone was taking fries from people sitting next to them, chuckling to himself and tossing them into it's mouth. He would always then wipe it's fingers on some random customer's coat, whoever happened to walk by. Shizuka was enjoying her burger, which had bacon on top of an already hearty combination of cheese and lettuce.

"Hey, can you get me what she's havin'?" Redbone said, pointing at Shizuka's burger, "That looks tasty as shit."

Rocko said nothing, continuing to stare at Redbone, nibbling at her fries every so often.

"Alright, fine." Redbone said, and evil smile forming on it's face, "I'll ask again, can you get me a burger just like this one. If you don't, I'll kill this bitch and take this one."

Rocko's face quickly changed, and now it was one of worry and panic. This was the same for Gilmour, who was just a few tables away. He was pretending to eat his meal, but was actually listening to Rocko and Shizuka, hoping to find a window to introduce himself.

"Redbone, shut the hell up." Gilmour whispered, covering his mouth. "Don't make this more serious than it has to be."

"Aw chill out." Redbone said out loud, "I know what I'm doing, just keep eating your cheese fries. You better save some of those for me."

Gilmour's blood ran cold, a single fry covered in melted cheese dropped from his finger. Rocko smiled, and looked at Redbone.

"I'll be right back Shizuka, I need to use the bathroom."

"Mmm, Alright." Shizuka said with a mouth full of bacon and fries.

Rocko stood up, and walked around, looking at every person at every table. Gilmour lowered his head, and avoided eye contact with Rocko. He was trying his hardest not to hyperventilate, but had a hard time acting natural. Rocko kept pacing around, trying to find anybody who looked suspicious, or was eating cheese fries. However, her eyes caught Gilmour, who was using his hand to cover his face. Rocko smiled, and slowly walked over to his table.

"This is it." Gilmour thought, "Please, don't hurt me too badly."

Suddenly, a homeless man stood up, and ran out of the wendy's front door. Rocko quickly turned and followed the homeless man out of the fast food restaurant, thinking it was the stand user trying to escape. Gilmour felt a huge weight come off of him.

"Thank god." Gilmour said

"Gilmour?" Shizuka yelled, "Is that you?"

When Shizuka turned to see the commotion caused by the homeless man and Rocko, she noticed Gilmour. She stood up and walked over to Gilmour's table

"Wow, this city is a lot smaller than I thought, huh?" Shizuka said, "What are you doing here? I thought you worked at Staten Island."

Gilmour quickly grew a fake smile and looked at Shizuka. He was terrified, but at the same time, relieved, as this ordeal may end less violently than he dreaded.

"Uh, I'm on my lunch break." Gilmour responded.

"You drove 25 miles to Manhattan just to visit a wendy's for lunch?" Shizuka said with a playful smile on her face.

"Uh, yeah, I think this wendy's is the best one." Gilmour said, "It's the only place that has my favorite thing on the menu."

"Ah, I see." Shizuka said.

Shizuka and Gilmour continued to chat for a bit, sharing interests and discussing their hobbies. Redbone was looking back and forth at Gilmour and Shizuka, every so often grabbing one of Gilmour's cheese fries and tossing it into it's mouth.

Just then, Rocko came walking back in, disappointment on her face.

"Where the hell did YOU go?" Shizuka laughed.

"I don't know, just felt like going on a jog." Rocko sarcastically said.

"Hey Rocko, this is Gilmour." Shizuka said, pointing at Gilmour. "This is the guy I was telling you about this morning, the guy who helped me and Maria out last night."

"Ah, you're a cop, huh?" Rocko said, putting her hand out to shake Gilmour's hand. "Can't say I have a good history with you guys."

Gilmour, as clumsy and awkward as he is, was smart. He made no eye contact with his own stand, and was able to seem natural in front of Rocko, who just a second ago almost found out that he was Redbone's user.

"Well, me and Rocko should get going Gilmour." Shizuka said, "It was good seeing you again."

"Uh, yeah." Gilmour said with a smile on his face. This time, however, it was genuine.

Shizuka and Rocko begun to leave the wendy's. Gilmour was happy with how things ended, and as they walked out the door, he gestured Redbone to return to him. Redbone did just that, and leaped off of Shizuka's back and crawled back into the Wendy's before the door even closed. It didn't go completely unnoticed though, as Rocko noticed Redbone entering the door right after she noticed it wasn't on Shizuka's back.

"Oh hey, I think I forgot my wallet inside." Rocko said.

"Oh, do you need any help finding it?" Shizuka replied

"No, I should be fine." Rocko said, "It'll only take a second.

Rocko marched into the wendy's and noticed Redbone sitting at Gilmour's table munching down on fries. She walked over to Gilmour, unnoticed by him or his stand until she spoke.

"So it was you, huh?" She said

Gilmour stopped moving completely, and slowly turned to face Rocko.

"Uh oh, now you're in trouble." Redbone said, slowly reaching for his fries, "I don't think you'll be able to eat these soon enough, so I'll go ahead and take em'."

"You used your stand to follow us, huh?" Rocko said.

Rocko quickly grabbed Gilmour by the back of his hair and slammed it onto the table. Everyone was facing them, except for Shizuka.

"You better give me a good reason why, or I'll beat your ass even harder than I'm going to." she said.

"I-I..." Gilmour stuttered.

"Better hurry asshole." Rocko said.

After a long sigh, Gilmour finally gave in.

"I had to see Shizuka again after seeing her last night, so I used my stand to follow her." Gilmour said "I was simply going to come up and talk to her, but I was afraid you were going to beat my ass."

Rocko shook her head reeled it back.

"What?" Rocko said, confused.

"It's like he said sweet cheeks." Redbone said, putting fries in it's mouth. "He wanted to talk to that friend of yours, so he used me for his creepy stalking escapades."

"That's pretty weird dude." Rocko said, letting go of Gilmour's hair.

"I KNOW IT IS." Gilmour said, frustrated. "And I wasn't stalking, I was just... following you guys, looking for a moment to talk to Shizuka."

"Uh, that's literally the definition of stalking." Rocko said.

"Yeah, I know." Gilmour said, a look of guilt and disgust on his face. "Look, my stand can't hurt anything, all it does is run it's mouth and eat food."

"Excuse me, I can kick both your asses all day long." Redbone said.

"What about Shizuka not being able to see it?"

"Yeah, that's part of it's ability as well, whenever it clings to someone." Gilmour said. "Look, can you just not tell Shizuka? I promise I'll be out of your hair from now on."

Suddenly, Shizuka walked in.

"Rocko, did you find your wallet yet?" She said

However, Shizuka quickly noticed the scene, Rocko standing next to Gilmour, all the while a 6 armed stand was shoveling fries into it's mouth.

"Uh, can someone explain to me what's going on here?" Shizuka said, looking confused as to what she was looking at.

"Ok, look, I'll just say it. I was-"

"He was helping me plan that prank I started earlier today." Rocko said, interrupting Gilmour. "The one where I said there was a stand on your back."

"Oh, Gilmour is in on that too?"

"Yeah, he was going to use his own stand to give you a scare." Rocko said, "But you ruined the surprise."

"Oh shit, I'm sorry." Shizuka said, "Um, I can leave, or pretend to be scared."

Rocko frowned, "Oh trust me, we're way past that."

The three of them talked casually for a bit, before Rocko and Shizuka left, leaving Redbone and Gilmour behind.

"You know she's right." Redbone said, "Using me to follow women you find attractive is really uncool."

Gilmour smiled. "Yeah, but I won't be needing you to do that anymore." Gilmour said, pulling out a piece of paper. The piece of paper had Shizuka's phone number, which she gave to him.

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"You gave your phone number to that guy?" Rocko said.

"Yeah, he seems nice enough." Shizuka said, "Besides, it's not like I have a ton of friends besides you."

Rocko held her tongue about today's ordeal.

"Yeah, fair enough."

Finally, Shizuka and Rocko arrived at the post office, and dropped off the letter into the mailbox out front.

"Who's that letter for anyway?" Shizuka said.

"It's a letter for Josuke." Rocko replied, "Maria didn't feel comfortable sending it through email."

"What does the letter say?" Shizuka asked.

"It's research she and Harold did on Caroline." Rocko replied.

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BREAKING NEWS

In an odd case of grand theft auto, over 24 cars have been confirmed missing. The odd part, however, is that these thefts have all seemed to happen within an hour, and all along the same street last night. Now here is the eerie part: While we don't have an exact suspect, an eye witness claimed that three sharp dressed men surrounded one of the vehicles, and in a blink, the car had vanished. Another thing to note is that not only cars were stolen along this street, but also sign posts, windows, mailboxes, and even phone booths.

Please stay tuned as this story develops.

===To=Be=Continued===


	47. 340, Sylvester Street (Part 1)

Name: Gilmour

Stand: Redbone

Appearance: Gilmour sports a blue button up shirt with several designs of planes and islands on it, looking like the print on an old map. Wears black jeans and a white pair of sneakers. Short Golden blonde hair with light stubble.

Ability: Redbone is a stand that has it's own personality, and is quite conversational, although pretty rude. It also has a hunger that can never be satisfied, often needing Gilmour to bribe it with food to get it to follow orders. If Redbone is clinging onto someone, said person can't see or hear Redbone. Gilmour can tell wherever Redbone is at any given time.

Destructive: F

Speed: A

Precision: C

Durability: D

Range: S (seemingly infinite)

Potential: A

Gilmour has an affinity for modern technology and fancy food.

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It was a cold and rainy day, and everyone was wearing a leather raincoat with large umbrellas offering protection from the rain. The rain fell like needles, and not a person was outside without the proper clothing. Even with this harsh weather, hundreds of people passed by the streets on their daily commune, and cars filled the streets, barely leaving room for another.

"Where the hell is he?" Josuke said, tapping his finger on the table.

Josuke and Koichi sat on a round table in a small family owned diner called "The Arctic Monkey" not too far from the hotel Josuke was staying at. This was the best place to talk about their findings in the case Harold allowed them, as the diner was usually empty, say for the occasional person getting their morning breakfast before their commune. They would have taken this to Josuke's hotel room, but the Neutral Milk Hotel was being bug bombed for pests.

"I'm sure he'll be here any second." Koichi replied

"He better be, every second we wait for Okuyasu, the more nervous I feel about being right out in the open." Josuke said

"It'll be fine, it's completely empty in here."

Just then, the door swung open, and in walked the man Josuke and Koichi were waiting for.

"HEY, Josuke, Koichi!" Okuyasu said, "Sorry I'm late, I was ordering breakfast at the diner just down the block, it took them longer than I was expecting.

Josuke looked at Okuyasu with a face of disapproval. "You could have had breakfast here, you moron." He said.

Okuyasu paused. "Uh, so you got that letter?"

"Yeah, right here." Josuke said, tapping the letter on the table. "Rocko sent it yesterday, said Maria and Harold didn't feel comfortable emailing it or giving it to me in person. Didn't want this letter being tracked."

"What does it say?" Okuyasu said, gesturing a waitress to order food.

"Remember that guy we encountered in Karma Police Lane? Yorke?" Josuke asked

Okuyasu and Koichi both nodded.

"Well, remember how he said that our killer, who we now know as Brock Bukowski, killed the leader of the Ladies of the Road?"

Again, Koichi and Okuyasu both agreed. "Caroline was her name, right?" Koichi said.

"Well, turns out that things are a bit more complicated." Josuke said, opening the letter and pulling out several Polaroid photos. Josuke set them on the table, and revealed that the photos were all of Caroline in several places in New York City.

"Either Yorke fabricated his story, or we have a dead body walking among us." Josuke said.

Koichi and Okuyasu both didn't know what to say. Okuyasu finished ordering food, and picked up the pictures to look at for himself.

"I don't know what we can do with these photos though." Josuke said, "Even Harold and Maria didn't get far in their research, all they could find were these pictures."

"When were these taken?" Koichi asked.

Josuke pointed at the picture of Caroline in front of a post office. "This one was taken 4 days ago."

Josuke then pointed at a picture of Caroline in front of an unidentifiable building. "This was taken the day after she supposedly died."

"What about this one?" Koichi said, pointing at a picture taken of Caroline in front of a white apartment building.

"That was taken only 2 days ago." Josuke replied

"What does all of this mean?" Koichi asked.

"I have no clue." Josuke said, "I have nothing to say, no idea how her still being alive is possible."

"No no no, we SAW her dead body, she's dead." Koichi said.

"I know Koichi, I'm just as lost as you are."

Just then, Okuyasu's food arrived, a large serving of hash browns, bacon, and a few eggs, sunny side up.

"Do you want to participate in this Okuyasu?" Josuke said with a frustrated tone to his voice.

Okuyasu grabbed the photo of Caroline standing in front of the white apartment building. After only a few seconds, he noticed something on the building.

"340." Okuyasu said, "This building has an address on it, 340."

Okuyasu tossed the picture back to Josuke.

"Hmm, so it does." Josuke said, "But there could be so many 340's in this city, so we could make a checklist and check them out."

"Ooor, we can check out Sylvester Street, Hells Kitchen."

"What, how can you be so sure this photo was taken there?" Koichi asked.

"The building looks run down, old, and decrepit. My guess would be anywhere in southern Manhattan, which only leaves that possible address."

Josuke smiled. "Well, you actually used that head of yours." He said. "Finish your breakfast, we have work to do."

"What are you thinking this building could be?" Koichi asked.

"I have no clue, but if there's a picture of Caroline in front of it, it must be important somehow." Josuke said, "Especially since it was taken so recently."

"Well then lets get our asses over there." Okuyasu said, shoving the rest of the hash browns into his mouth.

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Hells Kitchen is a small pocket inside of Manhattan. It's known for many things, such as it's aspiring actors and actresses, it's beautiful architecture and scenery, and rich culture, all in this small area. However, Hells Kitchen also has a gritty reputation, and drugs and crime are well observed in this area. The drugs are the most worrying to Josuke, since this new stand giving drug could be taking its effect on users in Hells Kitchen.

"Now be on the look out." Josuke said, "We know Caroline was here from the photo. Hells Kitchen has plenty of drug users who would love to get their hands on this drug the Ladies are cooking up, so we could have a few stand users walking right past us without even knowing it."

Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu made their way down the crowded and wet Sylvester Street. The rain still fell down hard, drenching the area and turning the sides of the street into a river. Eventually, they were about a block away from their goal, 340 Sylvester Street.

"Koichi." Josuke said.

Koichi nodded. "Act 1" He said.

Echoes Act 1 emerged from behind Koichi, and flew into the air.

"What exactly do you want me to look for." Koichi asked.

"Anything that looks like it would give us trouble if we approached the building."

Echoes Act 1 looked around, down each alley, up the road, every driver that passed the building, anything that could possibly be suspicious. However, nothing came up.

"I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary." Koichi said. "Just people walking by, but I doubt they have any clue what's going on here."

"Ok, we're good to move in." Josuke said.

The three moved down the street, eventually making it to the door of the apartment building. Just like in the picture, a small metal sign drilled into the wall read "340". Josuke looked over to the side, looking at the tenants name on the mailbox near the door.

"Lets see, we have an Al Hert, Ty Segall, Melody Echo, and Nick Drake." Josuke said, reading the names, "So four tenants. Any of these names ring a bell to you guys?"

Koichi and Okuyasu both shook their heads.

"Eh, maybe this building is irrelevant to Caroline." Okuyasu said, "It was a pretty weak lead."

"Maybe." Josuke said, "But it can't hurt to be sure."

Josuke opened the apartment door. In the building was a narrow hall with two doors on either side, numbered 1 and 2. There was a flight of stairs that went onto a small balcony looking down into the lower room, and on either side was another set of doors, 3 and 4. Josuke started by knocking on the door to his left, door number 1. A grizzled old man with a single stripe of grey hair going over the top of his head answered the door, acting quite rude. After Josuke showed him the badge, the old man said his name was Al Hert. Josuke showed him the photo, but the old man didn't recognize it. Door number 2, a short young woman with dyed black hair and several piercings on her nose and ears answered. She was very kind to the three, introducing herself as Ty Segall, but she didn't have any clue about the photo either. Upstairs and to the 3rd door, another woman with silver blond hair and baggy pajamas answered. She seemed nervous, and seemed to be jumpy in the presence of these officers. After saying her name was Melody Echo, Josuke had a feeling that Melody was just generally a skiddish person.

Onto the 4th and last door, Josuke approached it with his hopes low. Maybe this was a dead end, and Caroline might have just passed this building in the photo without being involved with it. He knocked on the door, and after the sound of the door unlocking, a thin young adult answered the door. He had messy brown hair, and from the looks of his eyes, Josuke could tell he didn't get much sleep last night.

"Hello?" The man said.

Josuke pulled out his Morioh police badge. "Hello, my name is Josuke Higashikata, and I'm currently doing an investigation. Can I have a moment of your time?" Josuke said.

"Uh yeah, sure man, come in." The man said, closing the door to take out the chain lock. The man's apartment was a bit messy, with dirty dishes in the sink, and the trashcan full of soda cans and tv dinners. Some of the walling and carpet was cracked and ripped respectfully, but Josuke chalked this up to be the general state of the building.

"May I get your name?" Josuke asked.

"Yeah, Nick Drake." The man said.

"So Mr. Drake, we have reason to believe that a person important to our case was around this area, and we have a picture of her." Josuke said.

Josuke pulled out the picture, and showed it to Nick.

"Do you by chance recognize this woman?" Josuke said.

Nick Drake took a second to look over the photo. After a moment, his eyes squinted, then widened.

"Uh yeah, I think she was here a few days ago. She knocked on all of our doors, but ran away as soon as the door opened. But I think I heard her talking to someone in the stairway, but I don't know for sure."

Josuke reeled back, as did Okuyasu and Koichi.

"Did this woman knock on your door as well?" Josuke asked.

"Yeah, but I was only able to look at her through the peephole. I guess I have an old door, since none of the other doors in this complex have a peephole." Nick Drake said.

"And you're certain that this woman was the same woman in this photograph?" Josuke said.

"Ugh yeah, she has the same clothes, the same hair, everything. At least I'm pretty sure it's the same girl."

Just then, all four of the men in the room heard a knock at the door. They all turned to look at the door for a moment.

"Oh, I'll see who it is." Nick Drake said. He stood up and walked over to the door, and looked through the peephole. After a moment, he had a look of confusion on his face.

"Huh, I guess it must have been a kid knock ditching or something, there's nobody here." He said.

Nick Drake went and sat back down on the couch in the living room.

"Any particular reason you want this woman?" Nick Drake asked.

"Sorry, that's confidential, but rest assured, we want her for a reason." Josuke said.

"Well, I hope I helped you guys out." Nick said.

Just then, there was another knock on the door. Nick immediately stood up and marched to the door.

"God dammit, what the hell is up with these kids." He said. Nick looked through the peephole once again. "Dammit, they did it again."

When Nick went to sit back down, Okuyasu looked out the peephole out of curiosity. However, what he saw made his blood run cold.

Standing in the hallway was a tall mechanical figure with yellow and black stripes going all the way up it's body. It's limbs were thin, looking like metal pipes with thicker joints connecting its arms and legs to its torso. It's torso was fairly human, being anatomically correct to a fit middle aged man. It's fingers caught Okuyasu's attention, being short and sharp. However, it had no thumbs, but instead 4 extra fingers coming out of the bottom of it's palm, making it's hands look more like segmented claws than hands. What caught Okuyasu's attention the most was its face. It had no head, but instead had 2 rows of 3 glowing red eyes going down it's chest. The figure just stood there, frozen completely still.

"J-Josuke." Okuyasu whispered, "Come take a look."

Before Josuke could even get out of his seat, however, Okuyasu suddenly yelled in pain, and fell to the ground.

"OKUYASU!" Koichi yelled.

Josuke jumped up out of his seat to help his wounded friend. Upon further inspection, he saw a large wound in his knee. The strange part, however, was that there were 7 perfect holes in his knee, and they were arranged in what seemed to be a honeycomb formation. The wound wasn't bleeding, and the whole's were perfectly cut.

Josuke and Koichi began to panic, not because of this odd discovery, but because they noticed something even more horrifying.

A bee was crawling out of the wound on Okuyasu's knee, and then another, and another.

===To=Be=Continued===

Note: Addresses in this story are fictional, and made up. Any connections to real life addresses is purely coincidental.


	48. 340, Sylvester Street (Part 2)

Stand: Crazy Diamond

User: Josuke Higashikata

Ability: Able to restore anything to it's previous state, including people. However, Josuke can't use this ability on himself. Once someone is dead, no matter how Crazy Diamond fixes them, they can't bring back the life.

Power: A

Speed: A

Range: D

Persistence: B

Precision: B

Potential: C

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Bees were coming out of the fresh wounds on the back of Okuyasu's leg. Every time a bee would emerge, another hole would form. Where there was once 7, there was now 11, all formed around each other to resemble a honeycomb.

"What the hell is happening?" Nick yelled, standing up from the chair.

"SIT THE HELL BACK DOWN!" Koichi yelled, pointing at Nick. Nick quickly obeyed, and sat back down.

"O-oh god this hurts." Okuyasu whimpered.

"I'm trying to fix you Okuyasu." Josuke said, "Whenever I try to fix you, these bee's will just emerge again."

"Act 2!" Koichi yelled. As he yelled this, Echoes Act 2 emerged from behind Koichi with a word in it's hands:

ZAP

Echoes threw this word onto Okuyasu's leg, and the bee's were immediately zapped and killed the second they left Okuyasu's leg. However, this didn't stop more bees from emerging and creating more holes. At this point, there were now 42 small holes going all the way up Okuyasu's leg.

"What the fuck is going on with these bees?" Okuyasu cried.

Just then, Josuke heard something, the sound of paper scraping on carpet, coming from the door. When he turned and looked, he saw a small envelope. It looked like someone slipped the note beneath the door. Josuke picked up the note, but before he even thought about looking at it, he bashed the door open. As the door swung open violently, he looked up and down the hall, not seeing a single person. However, he did notice something walk into the hallway from the staircase. It was the same tall mechanical figure, the one that Okuyasu saw through the peephole. Josuke didn't have time to react before a bee flew close to his face. However, he was quick, and swatted it away before it was able to sting him. He dashed back into the room, slamming it and locking the door and securing it thoroughly.

"Just as I thought." Josuke said, sweating, "We're under attack by a stand user."

"YOU THINK?" Okuyasu yelled sarcastically in pain. "Who's the user?"

"I have no idea." Josuke said, "It could be anybody in this building."

"Maybe it's Nick, he's the only one who had a connection to Caroline." Koichi suggested.

"Uh, I don't think it's Nick, Koichi." Josuke said, clearly upset and nauseous.

Koichi turned to look at Nick, only to almost fall and lose his lunch. Nick was covered head to toe with the same holes that were on Okuyasu's leg. He was twitching, no sign of presence in eyes. When Koichi looked closer, he noticed that there weren't just holes, but entire tunnels underneath Nick's skin. Some holes on Nick went completely through his body, allowing Koichi and Josuke to see the wall behind Nick at some places. Bees were emerging from his exposed flesh, making his body more and more hollow, making him barely recognizable. Bees were swarming the room around the Trio, the sound of buzzing filled their ears.

Okuyasu's leg wasn't doing any better. His entire leg was covered with over 100 small holes, and tunnels were starting to form under his skin as well.

"OKUYASU!" Josuke yelled.

"STAND BACK!" Okuyasu replied.

The Hand formed behind Okuyasu, and raised its open palm. The palm glowed a bright green, but Okuyasu hesitated.

"GOD DAMNIT." Okuyasu yelled, seeming conflicted. "FINE!" He yelled

The Hand swiped its palm down on Okuyasu's leg, and in a second, Okuyasu's leg was completely gone. Okuyasu screamed in pain, so loud that it's a wonder his voice didn't go out. The flesh and skin on the nub left over quickly formed together, sealing the wound.

"OKUYASU, YOU CRAZY BASTARD." Josuke yelled, grabbing Okuyasu by the arm and putting it over his shoulder.

"Come on Koichi, we need to find a way out of here." Josuke said in a panic.

"THERE'S A WINDOW OVER HERE!" Koichi yelled, pointing at a small window covered with a curtain.

Josuke began to run towards the window with Okuyasu's arm around his shoulder, along with Koichi. As they approached the window, Josuke used Crazy Diamond to punch the window and the wall around it, creating a hole big enough for all three of them to jump through. Once they were in the air, Josuke used Crazy Diamond to grab onto Koichi's leg and the metal drain going down the building, slowly lowering them down the front of the building. Of course, Josuke also fixed the hole behind them. When they were on the sidewalk in front of the building, Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu were all breathing heavily, Okuyasu laying on the floor leaning on the building.

"Well, we got our answer." Josuke said, "Someone definitely doesn't want us here."

"What are we going to do Josuke?" Koichi said, breathing heavily in between words, "Whatever that stand ability is, we can't handle it. Okuyasu had to take off his own leg just to survive that attack."

"Wait a minute." Josuke said, "The bees didn't follow us outside, did they?"

"Now that you mention it, I don't see a single bee out here." Koichi replied.

"Were you stung while we were in there?" Josuke asked.

"No, thankfully. I had Echoes put the word ZAP on my back, but they didn't even try to begin with."

Josuke nodded, and looked around the building, trying to see if any of the bees were trying to follow them outside. A minute passed, but not a single bee was to be seen, around them or the building.

"Hey Josuke, did you grab that letter someone slid under the door?" Okuyasu grunted in pain.

Josuke quickly remembered the letter, and pulled it out of his pocket. He opened it, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. After unfolding it, a short note was typed:

YOU HAVE 5 MINUTES TO LEAVE THIS BUILDING

IF YOU ACT QUICKLY, YOUR FRIENDS LEG WILL BE SPARED

DO NOT COME BACK

IF YOU DO, MY FLOWER BOY WILL KILL YOU

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

===To=Be=Continued===

Attention: Apologies for the short chapter, as well as the long gaps between chapters. Dealing with a lot of life stuff, I have little time to write new chapters. But I promise chapters WILL come out, it'll just be a gap between each chapter until I get personal stuff figured out. As always, thanks for the awesome support.

-Chem.


	49. 340, Sylvester Street (Part 3)

Stand Name: Echoes

Ability: Can use sounds for various effects.

Act 1: Can create a constant sound on any object or person.

Act 2: Can change the attributes of an object WITH sound.

Act 3: Can increase the weight of an object, but this may only be one of its abilities.

Power: B

Speed: B

Range: C to B, depending on which act.

Persistence: B

Precision: C

Potential: A

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"What is it Josuke?" Koichi asked, pointing at the letter.

"It's from the user of the stand that attacked us." Josuke said, "It's a threat. It says we either leave or die."

Josuke crushed the letter in his fist. His face showed a vast amount of emotions, from anger to disappointment, and from disappointment to defeat. He shoved the crushed letter into his pocket, and began looking up at the building. Although no normal person could tell what Josuke was thinking, Koichi and Okuyasu could tell right away.

"Josuke, I know you hate it, but we need to retreat." Koichi said. "Our stands are pretty good together, but that stand in there is on a whole different level. We don't have a chance. Maybe we can go to the night watch and get their help on this, and we can come back."

Before Koichi could say anymore, he was interrupted.

"Who the hell do you think you're talking to?" Okuyasu said.

"What do you mea-"

"Who took out other stand users that would have made mince meat of us back in Morioh." Okuyasu said.

"Josuke did, of course." Koichi replied.

"Who became a commissioner in their home town in only a year?"

"Josuke did." Koichi replied.

"Who defeated a serial killer that could turn any of us into a bomb with a single touch." Okuyasu said.

"Now hang on, we all had a hand in that one." Koichi said.

"Doesn't matter, the point is, you underestimate the hell out of Josuke." Okuyasu said, using a piece of ply wood to help him stand up.

"If Josuke has his mind set on something, then god damnit, it's going to be done."

Koichi closed his eyes and smiled, with a face of concern.

"I guess you're right, Josuke does pull through anything that's thrown at him."

"As much as I like you guys gushing about me, are we going back in or not?" Josuke said, a smile on his face.

"Hell yeah we are, that piece of shit owes me a leg." Okuyasu said, popping his knuckles.

"I don't like it, but I'll join in too." Koichi said, with a nervous tone to his voice.

The three approached the front door once again, but instead of opening it quietly, they threw it open, marching in the building.

"Koichi, you go get Melody Echo, Okuyasu, you go get Ty Segall." Josuke said, "No matter what, keep them in your eyesight at all time. I'll go talk to Al Hert."

Josuke pulled out a few small black objects out of his pocket. Walkie talkies, with a wire going down to their pockets from their shoulders.

"Grabbed these before we left Morioh, if anything goes down, let the other two know immediately."

Koichi and Okuyasu both nodded, and left to their assigned suspect. Josuke went to Al Herts apartment. The three were nervous, but they swallowed their fears. One of them was about to go face to face with the user of the stand that attacked them. Which tenant it is, however, is anybody's guess.

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A blue tooth speaker was blasting pop music in a small one bedroom apartment, decorated with plenty of pink posters of simplistic cartoon characters. The home was very clean and upheld, probably even improved upon since the tenant moved in. In the middle was Melody Echo, dancing along with the energetic beats and electronic pops in her favorite music. She was wearing a pair of fuzzy red pajamas with a black hello kitty shirt. Her hair was a silver blonde, most likely dyed. She was singing along to the music, rather badly, but she barely cared. She couldn't have a care in the world, all while the oven was preheating for store bought cinnamon rolls.

Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door. The knock wasn't really forcible, but still had a decent amount of haste to it, at least in Melody's opinion. She paused her music, and tip toed to the door. She looked out the peephole, but couldn't see anybody.

"Hello?" She said in a confused and whimper voice.

She heard the knock again, and she jumped and ran to the other side of the room.

"Who are you, why can't I see you through the peephole?" She said, "Are you a ghost?"

"Uh, excuse me, ma'am. I'm... uh... Detective Hirose." Koichi said on the other side of the door, "I just need you to step out into the hallway for a second."

"Oh, are you trying to solve the case of your own murder Mr. Ghost?" Melody said.

Koichi's face went to an expression of frustration.

"I'm not a ghost, just please open the door so we can talk." Koichi shouted.

Melody tip toed back to the door, opening it just a crack. She peaked into the hall to see the short man that stood before her. A large smile began to form on her face.

"Ooooooh." She said, "You're just a really short person."

"Uh.. yeah. Can you step out for a second?"

Suddenly, they both heard a "ding" come from Melody's kitchen.

"Oh oh, the ovens done preheating." Melody said, before slamming the door shut into Koichi's face. He fell onto his back, his nose already beginning to swell. He sat back up, holding his nose, staring at Melody's door.

"You can't be serious." Koichi said.

Koichi stood back up and knocked on Melody's door once again.

"Hellooo." Melody said.

"It's me again." Koichi yelled, starting to get more and more annoyed.

Melody opened the door, and once again a large smile grew on her face.

"Oh, it's the short detective ghost. You want a cinnamon roll?" She said, "I just put them in the oven, they should be done soon."

"No... thank you." Koichi said, "Please Ma'am, this is important, I need you to follow me into the hall, we are doing an investigation on..."

"No, not yet, I don't want to burn my cinnamon rolls again." Melody interrupted.

She ran back into the kitchen, but this time leaving the door open.

"Uh, is it okay if I come in?" Koichi said.

"Yeah sure." Melody said, so fast that it almost sounded like one word.

"If I can't get her out into the hall, maybe I can see if I can get any information out of her." Koichi thought to himself.

That was until he noticed Melody petting a flower.

"Well, probably not." Koichi thought, his face starting to cringe.

Koichi wondered through the apartment, taken aback by the sheer amount of pink around the house. The house had several flowers in pots sitting near almost every window. One of the windows was open, maybe to let bugs in and pollinate the flower, Koichi couldn't be too sure though.

However, this same revelation also made Koichi's heart stop, as he noticed a bee pollinating the flower. He didn't know the full nature of the bees and this mysterious stand, but he wasn't taking any chances. Koichi raised his hand and went to swat the bee, but was stopped by Melody grabbing his hand.

"What do you think you're doing?" Melody said with a stern tone.

"Uh... there's a bug in your home." Koichi replied.

"Don't you know that bees pollinate flowers?" Melody said, "If you kill a bee, that could kill thousands of potential flowers."

"It's just one bee." Koichi said, sweating. He didn't dare reveal the full nature of the situation, that way he didn't risk either causing an innocent person to panic, or to find out Melody might be the user.

"Doesn't matter, the bee didn't hurt you, did it?" Melody replied.

"I guess not." Koichi said, looking at the bee.

Suddenly, the two once again heard a "ding" from the kitchen.

"Ooo, the cinnamon rolls are done." Melody said, skipping to the kitchen.

Koichi stared at the bee for just a second longer, trying to think of possible theories for the stands full ability, but to no avail. He turned to face Melody in the kitchen. Maybe he can get some sort of confession if she IS the user? However, his hopes for this were low, especially for this very strange woman. However, as he turned to face the kitchen, he noticed another note on the door, which was still wide open.

"I...I left the door open!" He screamed in his thoughts.

He also saw the stand, the black and yellow mechanical thing, standing in the kitchen behind Melody. Bees were crawling and flying all around the stand, but none of them seemed to have any interest towards Koichi or Melody. The stand seemed to be facing the note, giving Koichi the idea that it wants him to read it. Koichi slowly walked towards the note, keeping direct eye contact on the stand. He grabbed the note and opened it, reading it as fast as possible.

I'M GIVING YOU ONCE LAST CHANCE TO LEAVE, OR ELSE EVERYONE IN THIS BUILDING DIES.

I MADE AN EXAMPLE OUT OF YOUR FRIEND, AND I WILL DO IT AGAIN.

BETTER NOT LET THAT SAME FRIEND TALK TO THE NEIGHBOR, FLOWER BOY WILL STRIKE AGAIN.

Upon reading this, Koichi immediately grabbed his walkie talkie and pressed the button.

"OKUYASU, JOSUKE, WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Koichi yelled.

Suddenly, Koichi heard a gunshot coming from the other room, Al Herts room.

"I god damn told you, I ain't answering no questions from nobody." A voice said, yelling from that very same room.

At the exact same time, Koichi noticed Ty Segall walking down the hall, her left arm covered with holes, the same holes that once covered Okuyasu's leg.

"JOSUKE?" Koichi yelled into the walkie talkie, "OKUYASU?"

===To=Be=Continued===


	50. 340, Sylvester Street (Part 4)

Stand Name: The Hand

User: Okuyasu Nijimura

Ability: Uses it's right hand to scrap away anything from existence. The objects to the sides of the recently scraped away object will clamp together, as if nothing had disappeared. Okuyasu can also remove the space between himself and other things, giving him the ability to teleport.

Power: B

Speed: B

Range: D

Persistence: C

Precision: C

Potential: C

Although The Hand is a terrifying ability, it's limited by its users narrow mindedness

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(10 Minutes earlier)

It was a quiet day, the window was letting in fresh crisp air from outside, as well as giving the several plants around the apartment plenty of sunlight. In this apartment, a girl with short black hair wearing a wool jacket and a pair of pajama pants was watering her plants. Along with the plants, the apartment was decorated quite comfortably, with a large sofa facing the tv, along with a large bean bag chair. There was a small incense burning, filling the air with the smell of ginger.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

The girl put her small watering can down to check the door. She used to have a peephole, but it was removed. She opened the door a crack, leaving the chain still in the door. Outside of her door was a muscular man wearing a jacket with the sleeves pulled up the arms, revealing the tattoos of a dollar sign and yen sign on his left and right forearm respectfully. He was missing a leg, and was holding himself up with a thick wooden stick.

"Hello?" The girl said.

"Are you Ty Segall?" The man asked.

"Uh, yes?" She said, "Who are you?"

"Officer Okuyasu." He said, flashing his badge, "I have a few questions to ask."

"I don't have time right now, maybe another day." Ty Said, seeing that Okuyasu was an officer from japan. She figured she didn't have to be serious with him. However, as she was closing the door, a white sneaker was blocking it's path.

"I don't think so." Okuyasu said, dead seriousness in his eyes.

"You are going to let me in and have a little chat, or we're going to have problems."

Ty Segall's face began to sour.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" She said, "You better turn around right now, or else I'll call the REAL cops."

Okuyasu barely listened to what Ty had to say, and he kicked the door open, sending Ty on the floor.

"I'm starting to get tired of your shit." Okuyasu said, "You're coming with me downstairs."

"Like hell, I'm coming with you." Ty replied, "No way I'm going with someone who just busted down my door."

She looked up, and saw that she was now right in front of Okuyasu. Behind Okuyasu was The Hand, with it's open right hand to his left, meaning he just used his ability.

However, before Okuyasu could grab Ty Segall, he heard something. A lone buzz. He looked around frantically, and saw bees crawling around the ceiling, walls, and inside the apartment. He shot his view down the hall, and saw the bee stand looking at him from around the corner down the end of the hall. However, instead of running away or attempting to escape, he smiled. The Hand raised it's open right palm and swiped down, sending Okuyasu towards it.

As soon as Okuyasu was close to the stand, The Hand's fist clenched hard on the arm of the enemy stand.

"I Hate to do this," Okuyasu said, "But this is the only way to find out who your user really is."

The hand grabbed the hand of the bee stand, and the other hand grabbed onto the bicep. It raised the arm up, and was going to shoot the elbow at it's leg. Bees were swarming Okuyasu, however, he was laughing.

"Koichi, you sneaky bastard." He said.

On his back was the word ZAP

As bees tried to sting him, they would be electrocuted and scorched before they could plant a stinger.

Okuyasu commanded The Hand to break the bee stands arm. Right before he was about to do it, however, a scream startled him. It was coming from Ty Segall's room. While he was distracted, the bee stand raised it's hand and jabbed it's 8 sharp fingers into Okuyasu's chest, and sending him flying.

Okuyasu wasn't dead, however, as he was very lucky. He reached into the pocket of his jacket where he was just punctured. His chest was untouched, however, his radio was covered in holes with bees crawling out of it.

"Shit." Okuyasu said, "Just being hurt by the damn thing triggers its ability."

Before Okuyasu could reflect too much on his discovery, he saw Ty Segall walking out of her apartment.

"Where do you think YOU'RE going?" Okuyasu yelled.

However, then he saw her arm, it was covered in holes with bees swarming around her. She then turned to Okuyasu.

"H-Help."

She kept walking down the hallway. Okuyasu couldn't find his stick, it must have been flung somewhere when he was attacked. He pulled himself up and against the wall trying to follow Ty Segall, however, he was too slow, and she disappeared down the stairs.

Just then, Okuyasu heard a gunshot downstairs, and he frantically pulled himself down the hall and went down the stairs. In the distance, he could hear Koichi yelling, along with the sound of endless buzzing.

===To=Be=Continued===


	51. Taking a break this week for Christmas

I won't be able to upload a chapter today, even though I promised a weekly chapter last week. However, to make up for it, next Saturday's chapter will be extra long.

Thanks for understanding.

-Chem


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